Mayor Karen Bass’s Los Angeles uses taxpayer funds to provide free needles to drug addicts, fueling the homeless drug crisis in the city rather than solving it. Bass is now suddenly distancing herself from the program as her Republican opponent, Spencer Pratt, has released a devastating new ad on the pernicious program.
Federal authorities recently raided MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Afterwards, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Anthony Chrysanthis said, “MacArthur Park belongs to the people of LA again. Earlier today we took 19 kilos of fentanyl out of a house associated with the [Sinaloa] cartel.… That is enough poison to kill 190,000 Americans that reside here, profit of over $10 million when sold." As federal authorities, including ICE, took action on L.A.'s drug crisis, Bass was spending up to $500 per sign to post anti-ICE notices on public property around the city. Perhaps the city let the drug hotspot of MacArthur Park grow so out-of-control because it is complicit in the lucrative drug trade so rampant there. Pratt certainly believes so:
BUSTED: Karen Bass caught paying street ops in black vehicles passing out needles and tourniquets to keep addicts high so her NGO friends can continue to profit off their misery and steal their Medicare $$. These people are sick. I’m ending this madness and imposing mandatory… pic.twitter.com/QZPOaxVYL1
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 12, 2026
Bass is now pretending she is opposed to handing out needles and drug pipes, but she's changing her tune. The California Post reported, in fact, that the publicly funded program continues to distribute free syringes to drug addicts at the park:
The California Post was there Tuesday and watched syringes being handed out in the middle of the neighborhood’s spiraling drug crisis. The chaos unfolding around MacArthur Park has become one of the biggest political flashpoints in Los Angeles.
Residents and business owners say the area has spiraled into an open-air drug bazaar flooded with fentanyl, crack, meth and overdose emergencies.
“It’s the third time she has lied,” property owner John Alle told the Post. Alle, one of the loudest critics of conditions surrounding the park said he’s tired of empty promises from Bass.
Alle said he spoke to Bass himself when she was at the park. The mayor assured Alle she opposed the free needles program, and when he asked if he could quote her on it, she answered, "I'm against it." She made the same assertion during a May 6 mayoral debate with Pratt and socialist Nithya Raman, even though the program continues.
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The Sidewalk Project was back on May 12 handing out the free needles and crack pipes, according to The California Post, which noted that the group receives city funding.
City records reviewed by The Post show the distribution is tied to a mayor-backed initiative worth more than $1 million that was approved by the City Council in November 2024 after being introduced by Bass’ office.
The contract connected to MacArthur Park called for distributing 75,000 sterile syringes, 25,000 safer smoking kits, commonly known as crack pipes, and 5,000 doses of naloxone.
Bass's office acknowledged the program doesn't do anything toward helping addicts overcome their addiction, but still claimed the mayor is dedicated to solving the L.A. drug crisis.
The fact that any Democrat actually justifies a program providing drug addicts the means to keep themselves high, dysfunctional, and potentially violent is kind of insane. But then again, all Democrat Party policies are insane on some level. That is exactly why Los Angeles needs to vote for Pratt rather than for another four years of the Bass nightmare.
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