“We don’t have a housing problem. We have a drug problem. We cannot solve a drug problem with more overpriced housing scams,” he said in a video posted online. “The DEA will tell you that over 90% of the homeless population in L.A. are hardcore illicit drug users.”
Pratt’s plan calls for ending taxpayer-funded distribution of drug paraphernalia, enforcing drug laws without exception, and making use of California’s new expanded civil commitment/conservatorship framework (SB 43) to move homeless addicts into mandatory rehab facilities.
He’s also calling for an end to the pipeline of state and federal resources going to “manage” the homeless population, and ring them in from other states, which he calls “profiteering on the misery of these drug addicts.”
In addition to that, he calls for a crackdown on crime and drug cartels. “Bring in the DEA,” he said. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”
“Some of these folks do need to go to prison,” Pratt said. “The violent offenders, animal abusers, and sex offenders will do time, but many of them simply need to be given a chance to recover. But they only have a chance if we confront their addiction, not just dump them in an apartment and give them a box of needles.”
He also says he is part of planning “with several high-profile developers who want to donate resources to build a large, modern, and safe” mandatory rehab campus “outside of our residential neighborhoods.” SB 43 expanded California’s “gravely disabled” criteria to include severe substance use disorder, allowing involuntary detention, treatment, and conservatorship.
“This isn’t jail. This is mandatory rehab. This is what you do for people you care about,” Pratt said.
“None of my opponents are living in this reality, and all they want is more taxpayer-funded housing. You cannot fix a drug problem with more housing,” Pratt repeated.
“You cannot fix L.A.’s drug problem with street medical teams jamming Narcan up their noses and simply propping them up to overdose again and again and again until these poor souls inevitably die in the streets.”
“But it’s even worse than that. Currently, Mayor Bass and Nithya Raman are increasing the rampant drug use by using your tax dollars to hand out fentanyl needles, tourniquets, and crack pipes to addicts throughout the city,” he said. “By doing this, they’re killing six to seven people every day in the streets in full public view of you and your children, and they pretend they’re the compassionate ones.”
“Ask yourself this: What if that addict on your street were your son, the baby boy you love more than anything? Unemployed, doing drugs every day, defecating in public, and harassing old ladies at the gas station for money. Would you buy him crack pipes? Would you let him continue to degrade himself in public?”
“Of course not.”
“You would stop the cycle. You wouldn’t let him defecate and die in the streets. You’d grab him by the wrist, drag his butt to rehab, and get him sober, whether he liked it or not,” he said. “If you brought him into your guest bedroom after rehab, you’d demand that he do zero drugs and maintain a damn job. Why? Because you love him, and that’s what you do for someone you care about.”
“Karen Bass and Nithya Raman don’t do this basic compassion intervention because they don’t care about these people. They don’t care if these poor souls struggle through their addiction and degrade themselves in full public view with no dignity. Karen and Nithya don’t care. I do,” he said. “Karen Bass and Nithya Raman currently pay NGOs millions of dollars to increase drug usage and profit off the misery of these drug addicts. I’m putting an end to this profiteering.”
“We have the laws. We just need to use them,” he said. “Last year, Democrats smartly passed a common-sense law amending SB 43 to classify severe drug users as gravely disabled. SB 43 gives the city and the county the legal pathway to place any and all street drug users on a 5150 hold for 72 hours.”
“Many of the addicts you see around your neighborhood are bused in from other states in order for local NGOs to profit off their addiction. Los Angeles is ground zero for unscrupulous treatment centers that rake in billions of taxpayer dollars, getting paid per head,” Pratt said.
“Remember, every one of these people on the streets has a Social Security number, and once these groups have that Social Security number, they get access to unlimited Medicaid funds and government assistance. There’s no cap on Medicaid dollars. So as long as these NGOs can claim they’re providing assistance, they can rake in thousands of dollars per person every single month,” he said. “Thirty percent or more of the 45,000-plus street addicts in L.A. are from out of state. Most of them want to go home. Their families want them back, but many of them are stuck here with no way out.”
“They don’t feel safe. They’re being used by drug cartels, and the NGOs and corrupt local politicians profiting off their misery don’t want them to leave and refuse to help.”
“As soon as I’m mayor, every addict who was trafficked here from outside L.A. is getting a free ride home back to their families. That immediately resolves a third of the problem overnight.”
