San Francisco – The mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, who won the elections in November on the commitment to repress the city fentanyl crisis, announced on Wednesday a new public health policy which will push more force on drug consumers in search of clean needles and other supplies related to their dependence.
The new policy, to take effect on April 30, marks a spectacular passage compared to the strategies that San Francisco has used in recent years to encourage – but not pressure – illegal drug consumers to treatment, even if overdoses exceeded 800 in 2023. Although the overdose numbers dropped last year, the preliminary data for 2025 show them refreshing.
For years, San Francisco and other cities have favored the growth of community programs that provide so -called harm reduction services. Such programs generally target the homeless with dependence, sending street workers to distribute sterile syringes and clean smoking kits – foil, pipes and straws, for example – in order to prevent transmissible diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. Many programs also distribute NARCAN, opioid overdoses.
The harm reduction approach has big defenders, who say that the strategy helps protect people with drug addiction until they are ready to engage in treatment. The strategy also has tired criticisms that say that the notion of “meeting drug addicts where they are” has not proven enough to bring people to ask for treatment or reduce mortality rates.
During a press conference at the Town Hall, Lurie said that San Francisco days distributing drug supplies without connecting people to treatment “are over” and that the overdose crisis, fueled by fentanyl, requires a more aggressive response.
“We have so much work to do in this city,” said Lurie. “We see people struggling with dependence. We see people die of overdose. And we have to make a change. “
Under the new policy, the city staff and non -profit organizations that receive funding from the city are prohibited from distributing sterile syringes and other supplies, unless they work actively to connect people with treatment and advice. The policy prohibits workers from distributing smoking supplies in the streets, parks and other public spaces, which requires rather than such documents to be carried out inside or in places sanctioned by the city. It does not change the rules for distributing clean syringes in public.
“We are really trying to become proactive here, instead of waiting, to watch people die,” said Daniel Tsai, director of the San Francisco Public Health Department.
The more difficult restrictions follow following the announcement of the Trump administration last month that it revoked billions of federal subsidies which help to finance the mental health and drug addiction services across the country. The prospect of major reductions in federal funding for community services is particularly worrying for the leaders of San Francisco, who are faced with a budget deficit of nearly a billion dollars from this year.
Lurie, who generally avoided talking about Trump during his first months in power, said that his administration “would focus on what we can control now.” In recent weeks, he has announced a series of political changes to keep San Francisco away from what his criticisms – and many voters – perceive as a gentle approach to dissuade open drug trafficking and the consumption of drugs that afflict certain districts, including the city center and the net and the southern market districts.
Shortly after taking office in January, Lurie worked with the supervisor council to adopt a measure giving her office more authority to bypass bureaucratic obstacles that have slowed down the expansion of shelter and treatment programs for homelessness, as well as more latitude to continue funding to finance these initiatives.
He works to open a 24/7 “stabilization center” in the heart of the net where the police can deposit people who need medical care. It also advances with a campaign promise to open 1,500 additional processing beds.
Lurie’s first efforts have alarmed some street workers on the front line who say that he abandons strategies that effectively prevent overdoses.
Tyler Termeer, director general of San Francisco Aids Foundation, warned that the new policy could cause more people to smoke drugs to inject them, which increases the probability of overdose and contracting of infectious diseases.
“San Francisco Aids Foundation is firmly held to our knowledge that people provide information and resources they need to take care of themselves, including safer supplies and processing and advice services, is the best for the health of people who use substances,” said Tremeer.
The Lurie office said that the public health service will monitor overdose levels and the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C “to ensure that this policy aligns with the global public health objectives”.
Lurie and Tsai have recognized that the new approach will not be easy to implement. On the one hand, the city has no sufficient processing beds to accommodate all people in need. And the rules keep forcing people to be treated. However, said Lurie, San Francisco must upset the status quo while expanding the treatment and interim housing capacity.
“What we are doing does not work,” said Lurie. “I’m not going to sit down and not act.”
California Daily Newspapers
