When asked by a listener in a radio interview with New Hampshire Public Radio how Gabbard felt about needle exchange programs and safe consumption spaces, Gabbard answered, “I think that these programs, and I’ve heard a lot about kind of the Hub and Spoke program here in New Hampshire that are being implemented at the local level, do so much towards helping people find that safe space to begin that tough path towards recovery, towards ending that addiction. I want to bring up one thing that I think the state legislature here [New Hampshire] has passed, I think through the House [of Representatives], and that that is marijuana. I’ve introduced legislation at the federal level to end the federal marijuana prohibition for a whole host of reasons, but one of which is how we’ve seen a direct correlation in states that have either passed medical marijuana or completely decriminalized marijuana. We’ve seen that correlation in a drop in opioid addiction and also a correlating drop in opioid related deaths. So I think there’s a number of different avenues that we need to pursue to address this opioid crisis. Not a single one of them alone will be effective in doing so, but we have to treat it like the crisis that it is both in accountability and prosecution for those responsible for proliferating these drugs, and recovery and treatment and help for those who are suffering at the brunt of this crisis.” NHPR host Peter Biello followed up by asking for a clear yes or no on whether needle exchanges are a “good idea.” Gabbard responded, “Yes.”

When voicing support for safe consumption spaces: “People who use drugs are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect.”

Regarding safe consumption spaces: “I want this to be a human and humane policy. I want it to be informed, guided and driven by the very people who are working on this, working through substance abuse challenges.”

On August 7, 2019 Yang tweeted his support for safe consumption sites in the US. Yang’s tweet read “We need more evolved approaches to opiate addiction. Overdose prevention sites would save lives – they are already helping people struggling with substance abuse in other countries. ‘You can’t recover if you’re dead.”
2020 Candidate Andrew Yang Tweets Support for Safe Consumption Spaces
Filter, August 8, 2019 | Alexander Lekhtman

“I’ll support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges, and expand the availability of buprenorphine to prevent overdoses.”
Sanders and Warren back legalization of injection sites for drug users
Truthout, August 29, 2019 | Mike Ludwig

When asked by IHRC how Castro would instruct the Department of Justice as President to respond to safe consumption space efforts in cities like Philadelphia, Castro responded, “Well I would like these communities to be able to pursue these safe consumption spaces and essentially pilot out how they work. I believe that we owe it to the effort to see how we can make sure that we avoid these kinds of tragic circumstances… We’ve been trying it one way for so long, and I also believe, having been a Mayor of a city, that one of the values of local communities is that they can try out policy in their own community and measure the results and see how it works, because the system that we have in place right now doesn’t seem to be working very much at all. So… whether it’s Philadelphia or at some of the other cities that have tried it, I believe that we should allow for the piloting of these programs, and that that will help us come to a determination nationally about the approach.”

“I fought hard as a mayor to open our first needle exchange center. Safe injection sites, I’m fully in favor of them.”
Cory Booker Confronted By Girl On Substance Abuse
NowThis News, May 19, 2019

“It was a big mistake when it was made. We thought, we were told by the experts, that crack — you never go back; it was somehow fundamentally different. It’s not different, but it’s trapped an entire generation… [I] may not have always gotten things right.” – At a January, 2019 breakfast commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. in reference to the 1988 legislation. Source