In an effort to address the city’s ongoing drug problems, San Francisco authorities on Tuesday revealed what they called a “soft touch” strategy, emphasising that “nobody is going to prison” but offering no specifics on how to solve the issue.
Since the beginning of 2020, there have been about 1,700 fatal overdoses in San Francisco, which is almost twice as many deaths as there were during the COVID-19 outbreak.
London Breed, the mayor of the city, declared in June that the infamous open-air drugs market, which is supported by tax dollars, will shut down at the end of the year.
The “San Francisco Recovers” plan announced on Tuesday, however, seemed to be a return to the open-air market system.
In order to avoid accidental overdose fatalities, their proposal advocated “supervised consumption centres” where drug users could take drugs securely while receiving medical attention.
They included a number of additional requests for handling the crisis, but instead of outlining how to implement them, they asked the six city commissions and the 21 city departments to come up with ideas within 90 days.
A supervisor named Matt Dorsey said that the objectives were’soft touch’ on purpose.
Among these is the electronic tagging of users, which allows authorities to find them and seize their narcotics if they stroll into well-known drug-dealing locations.
Supervisors in San Francisco seek “right to recovery” zones surrounding treatment clinics with zero tolerance for possession or dealing, as well as job placement and training instead of incarceration for people who agree to quit peddling drugs.
They also demanded the establishment of controlled drug usage areas.
According to The San Francisco Standard, Dorsey remarked, “This is a method where nobody is going to prison but we’re doing an effective job of stopping the drug market and drug scenes.”
Tenderloin Supervisor Dean Preston has requested for a meeting to discuss drug overdose fatalities to be held on September 29.
Preston said, “We are steadfast in our resolve to ensure that health professionals, not politicians, drive the formulation and execution of a long overdue overdose prevention strategy.”
Three months after the Linkage Center, the current plan, was denied more funds, their blueprint was released.
In June, it came to light that the $19 million taxpayer-funded clinic only treated one user out of every 1,000 and did not reduce the rate of fatal overdoses.
The Linkage Hub in the Tenderloin, the centre of San Francisco’s civic district, opened in January with the goal of assisting the city’s sizable homeless and drug addict population in finding assistance.
However, detractors claim the $75,000 per month site has failed to solve the issue in the city, which recently had to recall its outspoken DA Chesa Boudin due to an increase in crimes that are being held responsible for a severe fall in the quality of life for residents.
Despite spending an estimated $19 million on operating expenses, they point out that in the first five months, just 0.1% of site visitors were referred to therapy.
Only 18 of the 23,367 drug users who visited the website between January and April received treatment referrals.
In addition, the number of fatal overdoses has not much decreased: the office of the chief medical examiner recorded 49 fatalities in January, and there were 45 last month.
Due to the fact that so few of the drug addicts who attended were being connected to any substantial kind of assistance, the centre even went so far as to covertly remove the term “linkage” from its name.
Mothers Against Drug Deaths (MADD) co-founder Gina McDonald told DailyMail.com that the organisation applauded the site’s demise since many of its contractors had earned substantial profits from it.
We all supported the Linkage Center because, according to what we were told, it would connect individuals to services, she added.
But it became into a drug den, including not just users but also individuals publicly seeking recovery.
‘We’re happy they are closing it down.
It was intended to be a location where people could receive care and assistance.
And it essentially became an opium den.
McDonald argued that the San Francisco department of health was mistaken in failing to persuade individuals to seek treatment.
She claimed that tolerance was not the solution and that a stronger policy was required to encourage those in need to seek assistance.
‘The department of health has taken on this radical harm reduction model,’ she explained.
They claim to meet people “where they are at.” They are, however, leaving them there.
McDonald, whose daughter developed a fentanyl addiction and who was also homeless and suffering from a meth-induced psychosis, continued, “I think it’s the San Francisco department of public health’s fault that they hired these contractors who make a lot of money when people stay sick.”
I think you can’t live there on the street if you’re lying there shooting up, smoking fentanyl, and stealing, she continued.
McDonald noted that “there are 30 people out there any time of day” and stated that drug dealers were the main issue.
When they can, the police do make arrests of dealers, she said.
“The street-level dealer keeps the amount that is only a misdemeanour on his person.” The remaining supplies are in the possession of the nearby homeless person.
And the police do not detain homeless people because San Franciscans oppose this because they believe it will harm them.
“My daughter’s dealer was detained three times for selling fentanyl before being freed.” After that, they would dispatch him to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.
For her protection, “I had to go and pay him off.”
The San Francisco department of adult probation, which has built two drug-free locations for individuals to obtain assistance and housing, is taking this approach, according to McDonald, who added that her group supports it.
If you use, they won’t let you remain, she added.
If you are caught, you are sent for treatment rather than being cast out onto the streets and then welcomed back.
Mayor of San Francisco London Breed’s spokesperson Parisa Safarzadeh said that the Linkage Center, which provided hot meals and showers to 400 individuals each day, had been a worthwhile experiment.
As the city created its longer-term plans for the Tenderloin, she said that the property was a “urgent intervention to stabilise the neighbourhood in the near run.”
But it’s not apparent what the longer-term strategy entails.
Breed has spoken of establishing up a ‘safe consumption place’, and suggested investing $4 million on initiatives in the Tenderloin next year like as street or park upgrades.
McDonald said that the city’s policies need a serious review.
San Francisco has become into Gotham, she said.
It has to change,