‘Give them all the fentanyl they want’ — Lancaster Mayor R. #Rex_Parris remedy for homelessness: ‘Free fentanyl’ & ‘a purge’
'There is nothing that we can do for these people,' Rex Parris claimed.
'They are responsible for most of our robberies, most of our rapes and at least… pic.twitter.com/jbYAsbBhlZ
— ⚡️🌎 World News 🌐⚡️ (@ferozwala) April 21, 2025
A Southern California mayor has sparked mass condemnation after revealing he’d give homeless residents ‘all the fentanyl they want’ in an effort to wipe them out.
R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, made the remarks in front of stunned residents and councilmembers at a city council meeting earlier in the year but footage of his speech has just emerged.
Huge swathes of California have been gripped by a fentanyl crisis as the highly addictive and deadly drug becomes more accessible and affordable on the streets.
Just a tiny, two milligrams dose of the drug is enough to kill a human.
Most of California is also in the grips of a housing crisis, as home costs soar and new developments stagnate – made exponentially worse by the devastating bushfires which tore through Los Angeles in January.
The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count registered as many as 6,672 people experiencing homelessness in Lancaster and its surrounding areas in 2024.
Asked about his vision to tackle the crisis, the 73-year-old Republican mayor did not mince his words.
‘What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,’ Parris told the February 25 meeting, to the bewilderment of everybody else in the room.
‘I mean, that’s what I want to do. I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.’