Councilmember Lozada has decided to target services that improve and save the lives of chaotic drug users in Philadelphia’s Seventh District. She wants to ban the presence of harm reduction mobile units in residential areas and areas near recreational centers. Anyone running a mobile unit could then be fined $500, with another bill targeting “littering” near these mobile sites that would fine people another $500.

Lozada claims she wants to work with the community, the services and the mayor to have areas where these units can run and help drug users. The reality, though, is that she wants to purge the neighborhood of chaotic drug users. She claims that these units have caused “nuisance behavior” and “public safety issues,” but they merely operate where these drug users congregate. Just moving the vans won’t do much, as some users will not change their using location just to find a van.

The other members of the Kensington Caucus, Councilmembers Mark Squilla, Mike Driscoll and Jim Hagerty, back this bill, unsurprisingly, because they also serve as both Lozada’s lackeys and as agents of developers trying to transform Kensington into a hot gentrified neighborhood that real estate interests can exploit.

Between the sweeps which resulted in Amanda Cahill’s death, the attacks on the International Overdose Awareness Day memorials, and the attacks on harm reduction mobile units, one tying string can be seen: a disdain for chaotic drug users and a disdain for the people who want to help or love them.