Questions and Answers

What do you want?

We want California’s governor to lead the effort to restore mandatory drug treatment as an alternative to jail for people who break the law, for local governments to break-up the open-air drug scenes, and for drug dealers to stop selling dangerous drugs. Our mission is to shut down the state’s drug death markets, win behavioral healthcare for all, and move from a Housing First to Shelter First policy on homelessness.

But won’t that require changing the laws and maybe the constitution?

There is a lot that the governor can do now but long-term he may need to change laws and even pass ballot initiatives. But that is what past governors did to create the situation we are in. And nearly 90% of Californians surveyed in 2019 said they support “involuntary commitment of homeless individuals who have severe mental/behavioral issues that may be a danger or harm to themselves or others in the community.”

Are you only concerned about fentanyl?

No, other hard drugs pose a major danger, too. From 2008 to 2020, meth overdose deaths rose 500 percent in San Francisco, and half of psychiatric visits to San Francisco General Hospital are related to meth. In 2019, meth was the most common drug in California overdose deaths. I am focused on fentanyl because it is what threatens the life of my son and killed Amy’s son but meth, cocaine, heroin, benzos, tranq, prescription opioids, and other hard drugs are also dangerous and deadly.

How did it get so bad?

In 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47 to make three grams of hard drugs for personal use a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Proposition 47 also ended jail sentences for people convicted of many nuisance crimes, including public use of hard drugs, public defecation, and shoplifting.

Are you calling for a new drug war?

No. The drug war went too far. I am opposed to mass incarceration. But the evidence is overwhelming that severely addicted people like Corey must be mandated treatment with jail as the alternative or they will not be able to quit. And we must break-up the open air drug markets so they do not destroy neighborhoods, make drugs more available, and worsen crime.

Are you against harm reduction?

We support many facets of harm reduction. Ultimately San Francisco makes it too easy to be addicted to drugs, and too hard to get off them. There needs to be pressure on addicts like my son to get clean, or they won’t.

Didn’t Portugal legalize all drugs?

That’s a great question. Portugal decriminalized possession and use, viewing addiction as a disease that requires medical help. When users are arrested for drugs, they are offered the option to go to treatment instead of jail. Another big component of Portugal’s success has been a culture of early intervention; indeed, drug users are typically referred to a regionally administered “Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction,” composed of a social worker, lawyer, and doctor who encourage drug treatment before an addiction becomes debilitating.

Isn’t the drug overdose problem a national problem?

Yes, but it is worse in San Francisco. In the U.S., drug overdose deaths rose from 17,000 in 2000 to 90,000 in 2020. Significantly more people die of drug overdoses today than of homicide (13,927 in 2019) or car accidents (36,096 in 2019). San Francisco has the fourth-highest drug overdose death rate of any major city in the United States. In 2020, 713 people died of accidental drug overdoses, a 61 percent increase from 2019. San Francisco’s overdose deaths rose from 11 per 100,000 people in 1985 to 81 per 100,000 in 2020, an over seven-fold increase.

How can cities break up open-air drug scenes like the one in the Tenderloin?

Cities need to use carrots and sticks, services and law enforcement. A major study found that five European cities (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Vienna, and Zurich) ended open drug scenes through the combination of social services and law enforcement. The same worked in the U.S. In North Carolina, police broke up drug dealing with community outreach workers. They offered the dealers jobs and help with restarting their lives as an alternative to arrest and incarceration.

But even if you break up the drug scene, won’t people still be able to buy drugs?

Yes, but it will be harder, the drugs will more expensive, and the drug dealing will be less disruptive. Ending the open drug scenes in the Tenderloin and South of Market will eliminate an attractive nuisance for addicts and those trying to recover.

What about opioid alternatives?

Many progressive nations like the Netherlands use medically-assisted mandatory drug treatment where opioid addicts get a prescription to Suboxone or methadone and an assertive case worker to help them with employment, re-affiliate with families and friends, and recover from addiction. We should expand the use of Suboxone, under a doctor’s supervision, to help addicts quit fentanyl and heroin.

What do experts say?

One leading expert is Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction specialist and advisor to President Joe Biden. “What’s happened in these places [San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland] is just the removing of all pressure,” he said. “The thinking was, ‘Oh, people will just show up automatically and go into treatment.’ But that doesn’t happen very often in addiction. Usually there’s pressure.”