Georgia’s 10th Congressional District — Responding to comments from Bill Essayli, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, following the major drug raid in Los Angeles:

Bill Essayli Comments on Los Angeles Drug Raid

“Bill Essayli is right. These soft on crime policies and failed addiction strategies have been a disaster.

As Essayli said, ‘We’re here today because California policies have failed. California policies have let people use drugs openly and notoriously with little to no criminal consequences. It is a failed experiment.’

Unfortunately, my opponent, Houston Gaines, has already supported pieces of the same approach here in Georgia. Houston sponsored and supported HB 217, legislation that expanded syringe service programs and protected needle exchange operations from criminal liability. These are the same kinds of policies liberal politicians promoted for years under the banner of ‘harm reduction.’

Houston Gaines is supposed to be a Republican. So why has he advocated for liberal drug policies that make needles available to addicts?

The rest of the country should pay attention to what has happened in Democrat run cities across America. Politicians spent years normalizing drug use, weakening enforcement, and calling it compassion. The result has been more addiction, more disorder, more crime, and communities overwhelmed by homelessness and public drug use.

You would think Houston Gaines, a Republican running for Congress in Georgia’s 10th District, would know better. But instead of standing up for common sense and conservative values while serving under the Gold Dome, he took a page right out of the California Democrat playbook and helped pass legislation that actually provides needles to drug users at no cost.

I, on the other hand, do not believe government should normalize addiction. Drug use is destructive. Government should focus on stopping trafficking, enforcing the law, securing communities, and helping people recover through treatment and rehabilitation, not making addiction easier to sustain.

Georgia must reject these failed liberal policies before it is too late and vote out the Republicans pushing this same dangerous agenda here in Georgia.”