San Francisco doubles down on city-sanctioned drug use amid Fentanyl epidemic

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday she is working with city supervisors to bring supervised injection sites into the city after her previous attempt fizzled out.

Breed, working with Board Supervisor Hillary Ronen, is attempting to pass a bill that would overturn a law prohibiting such establishments, according to Politico. The city law prohibits safe injection sites, which give a “safe space” for users to inject drugs and often supply clean needles, other hygienic tools such as alcohol prep pads and cotton, as well as supervision.

The current law does not allow for any overdose prevention program to be enacted until state and federal issues are resolved, according to a government-issued San Francisco memo.

Breed claims the bill is a strategy to reduce accidental drug overdoses and open-air drug use. While accidental drug overdoses declined in 2022, according to state data, open-air drug use remains prevalent in the city.

Breed’s previous attempt to curtail drug overdose was a $22 million center in the Tenderloin neighborhood which claimed to be a resource for drug treatment. However, the center became a hotbed of crime and drug use, and only referred less than 1% of users to treatment, according to The San Francisco Standard.

The center shut down in December 2022, after less than a year in operation, according to SFIST.

Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown previously vetoed a bill allowing safe injection sites statewide in 2018, while in 2020, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom did the same.

“The unlimited number of safe injection sites that this bill would authorize — could induce a world of unintended consequences.” Newsom said, according to the Associated Press.

Breed’s bill to overturn the 2020 city law goes before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan 24. She claimed repealing the law is a necessary step in addressing drug use and overdoses.

Breed’s office referred the DCNF to a press release on her bill.

“We are committed to opening overdose prevention sites in San Francisco, but due to legal restrictions, there remain significant challenges,” Breed said. “Despite that, we are continuing to work with our non-profit partners to find creative ways to open these sites, and these steps are critical for that to happen.”

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