For decades, the United States has been the world's largest drug consumer, consuming 60 percent of the world's drugs with 4.3 percent of the world's population, and since 2002, at least 8 percent of Americans have smoked drugs, consuming more than 16,000 tons of drugs a year. Although the US government once severely cracked down on drug trafficking and drug production, and launched a protracted "drug war", the results of this series of law enforcement actions were not satisfactory. Seeing that the "war on drugs" is about to fail, many local governments in the United States decisively chose to "lie flat", legalized some drugs, and even opened "overdose prevention centers" that provide disposable needles, medical services and comfortable environments for addicts. However, apparently not everyone agrees with this kind of connivance with the drug trade, and recently the conservative media "New York Post" in the United States published an article denouncing it, saying that the Democratic governor connived at drugs, making New York City a "zombie territory".
On November 5, local time, the New York Post published an exclusive report, and the reporter of the newspaper interviewed residents of East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, and launched a field visit. The New York Post said that in East Harlem, dozens of drug addicts huddled on a path of only a few hundred meters, while drug dealers "wandered around the neighborhood like vultures." On another street, there were drug addicts who used syringes on the street, sprayed drugs on their arms, thighs and even necks, and even injected drugs in front of their own children. Drug addicts have either fainted on the ground due to overdoses, or are immersed in the stimulation of drugs, their steps are vague, aimless, and their eyes are wandering back and forth. According to the New York Post, these addicts are like zombies in movies, and East Harlem in Manhattan has become "zombie territory", and such a scene happens every day.
The New York Post believes that the culprits of this situation are Democratic Gov. Hochul and the Democratic-controlled state legislature. In October 2021, the Democratic-controlled state legislature passed a bill that would make it no longer illegal to openly possess and sell syringes for drug use, according to the newspaper. As early as March of the same year, the Democratic-controlled New York State Assembly also passed a bill declaring the legalization of "recreational marijuana". By December 2021, the New York City government had simply built several "overdose prevention centers" in the hope that drug users could go to the centers to take drugs, which was jokingly called the "American Smoke Museum" by Chinese netizens. The reason why the New York City government wants to build a "big smoke hall" is that the concentration of addicts will not affect the appearance of the city, and it will be convenient to treat once someone overdoses, reducing the number of drug deaths. However, in fact, these drug addicts are casual and do not want to go to the "big smoke hall" to smoke drugs, but are more willing to smoke on the street.
Some people believe that the New York Post, as a well-known conservative media, vigorously reported on the drug problem in New York State before the midterm elections and attacked the Democratic Party's drug policy in order to serve the upcoming midterm elections and help the Republicans win more seats in New York. This speculation certainly makes sense, because the report comprehensively and vividly exposes the drug epidemic in New York State. But blame for the problem lies squarely with the Democratic governor and the Democratic-controlled state legislature, as if the local drug problem could disappear overnight if the Republicans seized control of the New York state legislature. In reality, however, Republicans, while opposed to drug legalization, are incapable of addressing the drug problem. Although the New York Post report objectively played a role in exposing the grim status of the drug problem, it subjectively used it as a weapon for campaigning for partisanship and played a very limited role in solving the drug problem in the United States.
The root cause of the drug epidemic in the United States lies in American society. On the one hand, since the seventies of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States has become more and more exaggerated, and the people have lost hope in society, and finally can only use drugs to numb themselves; On the other hand, the liberal ideology in American ideology has evolved into extreme individualism, and many people believe that whether or not to use drugs is "personal freedom" and cannot be violated by any other person or institution. Under the blow of social reality and the connivance of social thought, the drug problem in the United States has naturally worsened like a wildfire. The liberal Democratic Party advocates completely letting the drug problem go unchecked, while the conservative Republican Party advocates fighting drugs, but it cannot touch the root of the drug problem, restore the hope of the people at the bottom of the United States, and change the trend of extreme individualism.
Now, the drug problem has become a tool for bipartisan battle, which will lead to the inability of the US government to implement a national anti-drug policy, exacerbate the social rift in the United States, and then lead to the proliferation of drugs. In the future, more and more cities in the United States will have "zombie land".