A walk down 16th Street in San Francisco revealed alleyways strewn with trash and open-air drug use. Near Caledonia Street, the strong stench of urine pervaded. Multiple people were scattered along the throughway, bent over and surrounded by drug paraphernalia. A woman was seen holding up a lighter toward a man with a glass tube in his mouth. He then blew out a billow of smoke into the air.
Though Mayor Daniel Lurie has declared the city’s drug crisis an emergency, there’s debate about how to tackle it and whether enough is being done.
At Tuesday’s San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting, District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder urged Lurie to reassess his approach in solving the city’s drug crisis following multiple law enforcement operations that aimed to crack down on drug use and drug dealing.
Fielder thinks that Lurie is leaning too heavily on law enforcement to eradicate open air drug use and dealing on the streets of the city, she said during the meeting.
Since Lurie took office at the beginning of the year, he has taken several steps to crack down on the crisis such as getting the Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance passed and ramping up police raids in hotspots known for drug activity.
Along the Sixth Street corridor in January, officers made 218 arrests, including 124 arrests for drug-related offenses, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Two weeks ago, law enforcement stormed Jefferson Square Park and made 86 arrests– mostly for loitering — and seized over 1.21 pounds of narcotics, according to police. Just last week, a raid at the BART Plaza on 16th and Mission streets led to only four arrests and the recovery of 28.5 grams of narcotics.
“These operations do help send a clear message,” Lurie said to the board at Tuesday’s meeting. “Whether in the Tenderloin, Jefferson Square Park, Sixth Street,16th and Mission, or anywhere in our city, drug dealers will find no safe harbor.”
Shifting the problem
But Fielder is concerned that drug users and dealers are simply being shuffled from one part of the city to another, including the Mission District, which she represents.
“The recent enforcement operations at Sixth Street have displaced people across the city, including to 16th and Mission,” Fielder said. “The fentanyl crisis persists … If you go out to 16th and Mission in the alleyways right now, you’ll largely see more of the same.”
Fielder called for Tuesday’s hearing to ask Lurie to focus on prioritizing addiction treatment as part of his plan.
“I understand that change doesn’t happen overnight,” Fielder said. “But it’s clear to me that with enforcement alone, and without a more comprehensive approach such as connecting people to treatment on demand and shelter recovery programs, we’re going to continue to displace people and public drug activities from block to block, neighborhood to neighborhood.”
Incarcerating drug users has also placed a burden on the jail. During last year’s lockdowns in the County Jail as the result of overcrowding, understaffing, and staff being attacked by inmates, the Sheriff’s Office attributed the inmate overflow to law enforcement sweeps arresting both drug dealers and users during London Breed’s administration, according to a briefing presented to the Board by Sheriff Paul Miyamoto last May.
Fielder suggested Lurie follow the “Four Pillars Strategy” employed in Switzerland, which incorporates equal use of education and prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and law enforcement.
“Zurich, Switzerland, was once facing similar poor street conditions, addiction and overdose rates as we are now,” Fielder said. “It is now among the safest cities in the world.”
More services part of mayor’s plan
Lurie assured Fielder he is focused on expanding shelter capacity and treatment beds as part of his plan to address the drug crisis in addition to utilizing law enforcement.
“These operations are just one component of our broader strategy to get those struggling with addiction into the treatment they need,” Lurie said. “Alongside our enforcement work to stop the sale of deadly fentanyl on our streets, we are also providing services to people who are on the pathway to recovery who may not be sure what type of support they need, and we are helping them steer them towards treatment.”
San Francisco has some options for those seeking recovery from substance abuse such as detox centers, week-long stays in treatment beds, medication assisted treatment, and long-term residential treatment, according to the city’s Department of Public Health. However, drug users must be willing to accept treatment and cannot be forced into recovery.
Nonetheless, Lurie was unapologetic regarding the use of law enforcement in his efforts to clamp down on open-air drug markets.
“My administration will continue to make this message clear through our enforcement actions,” he said. “If you are dealing drugs, we are going to continue coming after you.”