Woke leftists who increasingly dominate the Democratic Party are continuing their assault on our culture and civil society in part by attempting to normalize aberrant and dangerous behavior.

Take New York City, for instance.

There, police and health officials appear to have given up all efforts to combat illicit drug use and instead are now encouraging its ‘safe’ illegal use.

According to a poster that went viral online, the New York City Department of Health is encouraging drug users in the city to feel “empowered” by ‘safe’ drug use while providing tips on how to avoid fentanyl “overdoses” (without noting that abstaining from fentanyl is 100 percent effective at preventing overdoses).

“‘Don’t be ashamed you are using, be empowered that you are using safely,’” the poster says in bold print next to a photograph of a black woman who may or may not be “Florence,” to whom the quote is attributed.

Friend who lives in Manhattan sends pic of this subway ad courtesy of the NYC Dept of Health. Heroin addiction — it's empowering! pic.twitter.com/561kljU0Fg

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) May 26, 2022

Though the poster begins by discussing heroin, it mostly focuses on the dangers of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The poster says that “fentanyl is a powerful opioid that can be found in heroin, cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, ketamine, and pressed pills.” A majority of people who take and die from fentanyl are technically “poisoned” by the substance, according to the CBC, because they tend to believe they are using the other drugs the post lists.

The NYC Dept. of Public Health only refers to fentanyl poisonings as “overdoses,” while including tips for avoiding “overdoses” that include “avoid using alone and take turns; start with a small dose and go slowly; have naloxone on hand; avoid mixing drugs; test your drugs using fentanyl test strips.”

When asked for comment, NYC Dept. of Health Press Secretary Patrick Gallahue sent the Daily Caller a statement from a press release in April regarding the latest campaign, saying “Every four hours, a New Yorker dies of a drug overdose. Shame pushes people underground. Shame drives people away from services. Shame puts people at even greater risk. And shame is life-threatening. We want to fight shame and stigma. We want people to live.”

Asked whether he had concerns that his agency was actually encouraging the use of dangerous hard drugs — which is supposedly a crime in New York City — Gallahue responded with a flippant “as I said,” and resent the same statement, refusing to directly address the question.

The Daily Caller adds:

Opioids have been attributed to almost 70% of drug-related deaths in the United States, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. Fentanyl is relatively low-cost for drug dealers and gangs as it is produced en masse in China and shipped to Mexico for easy access to the United States via the open southern border.

And while Democrats focus on gun deaths, as horrific as they are, the NCDA notes that overdoses are killing more Americans by far:

More than four (4) times as many people died from drug overdose (OD) than from homicide in the first month of 2021.