A Southern California mayor sparked controversy for comments about his city’s homeless population.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, a Republican, said he wants to “give them free fentanyl.”

“What I want to do is give them free fentanyl. That’s what I want to do,” Parris said.

“I want to give them all the fentanyl they want. That’s what I want to do,” he emphasized.

Southern California mayor says he wants to ‘purge’ homeless population by giving them ‘all the fentanyl they want’ https://t.co/jShAtQp49e pic.twitter.com/IiQrMO0ZoC

— New York Post (@nypost) April 21, 2025

Per KABC:

A video of that exchange at the meeting has been circulating online, stirring massive controversy.

“I mean, I thought people were intelligent enough to understand that it was a metaphor,” Parris said in an interview with Eyewitness News. “But I don’t regret saying it. It’s brought attention to the problem. Hard-working families cannot be safe as long as California continues to empty their prisons and make these people homeless.”

The mayor clarified that his frustration with the homeless does not include the mentally ill or honest people who fall on hard times and end up on the street.

“I do think that people who fall on hard times need help, and we should provide that help, and I certainly believe that no one should be required to go hungry,” Parris said.

Parris says the City of Lancaster has devoted a lot of resources to helping the homeless. However, he adds that his controversial comments were pointed toward those who are let out of prisons — becoming homeless and committing crimes.

WATCH:

NEW: California mayor says he wants give homeless people “all the fentanyl they want,” doubles down on his comments after facing backlash.

Woman: “It sounds like you want to kind of enclose all these homeless people in one territory.”

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris: “What I want… pic.twitter.com/mOBRW6k2tl

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 21, 2025

This is the statement put out on Facebook by the Mayor of Lancaster, CA regarding his recent statements about giving the homeless fentanyl that went viral. pic.twitter.com/aYd4crgviq

— Carissa (@Carissa1177) April 24, 2025

Read Parris’ full statement on Facebook:

Daily Mail reports:

The mayor of a California city who sparked fury over a wild assertion that homeless criminals and addicts should have ‘all the fentanyl they want’ – to eradicate them from streets – revealed he’s been bombarded with death threats.

And in an exclusive interview, R. Rex Parris doubled down on his war on crime by saying he wishes to have remote drones armed with weapons circling over the city of Lancaster to combat lawlessness.

He told Daily Mail his shocking comments about fentanyl, a cheap and deadly opioid corroding communities and killing users, weren’t meant to be taken seriously – but that urgent ‘triage’ is indeed necessary to quash problems related to drugs and homelessness.

‘It was a metaphor. You’d have to be an idiot to think I was serious. I obviously was not serious about giving people fentanyl,’ Parris said.

‘I tend to say provocative things. Why not? I’m a trial lawyer. But it accomplished what I wanted. People are talking.’

Lancaster, 60 miles north of Los Angeles, was incorporated in 1977 and consists of 96 square miles. It’s motto: ‘Creating a better tomorrow. Together.’

Parris, 73, a staunch Republican, is clearly ‘frustrated’ by homeless criminals in his city and the unceasing homeless crisis in the Golden State – despite huge amounts being spent on the problem.