S.F. safe injection sites bill draws veto

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown rejected San Francisco’s plan to allow safe injection facilities for illicit drug users, saying Sunday that he was concerned about exposing local officials and health care professionals to potential federal criminal charges.

In vetoing AB186, the governor also said he was not convinced the bill would lead to drug users getting the treatment they need to get clean.

The bill by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, would have created a four-year pilot program in San Francisco aimed at reducing opioid overdoses and encouraging users to go into treatment by giving them supervised facilities to inject themselves and ride out the high under clinical supervision.

The Trump administration warned that if California allowed the sites, those involved could be subject to civil and criminal action.

Brown said in a veto message that “enabling illegal drug use in government sponsored injection centers” with no requirement of treatment is “all carrot and no stick.”

“Enabling illegal and destructive drug use will never work,” Brown wrote. “The community must have the authority and the laws to require compassionate but effective and mandatory treatment.”

The bill was backed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who has been working to ease unrest about the potential for safe injection sites in the city, including by opening a mock injection site in the Tenderloin. “I’m disappointed that the governor has vetoed this important public health bill,” Breed said in a statement. “Safe injection sites save lives. If we are going to prevent overdoses and connect people to services and treatment that they badly need to stop using drugs in the first place, we need safe injection sites.”