Election boosts city’s plan for safe drug sites
San Francisco officials spent the past few years trying to open a safe injection site where people struggling with addiction could use drugs indoors and around nurses who could help them if they overdose.
The idea, which would need state approval, has widespread support in San Francisco as overdoses skyrocket amid the coronavirus pandemic. But city officials face another hurdle: threats of arrest from the Trump administration, which said the sites violate federal law.
The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris may create an opening. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that if California passes legislation to authorize a site next year, she’s “hopeful” the city can
move forward without fear of retaliation from the federal government.
That hope signals what is likely to be an easier four years ahead for San Francisco in its relationship with the White House.
The relationship will be especially important as the city navigates perhaps the most tumultuous time in modern history. Not only is San Francisco dealing with the economic turmoil of the pandemic, but it’s also grappling with a swelling homeless population, a dearth of affordable housing and record opioid-related deaths.
Over the past four years, President Trump has aimed vitriol, disdain and antipathy at San Francisco, calling it a “filthy dirty” city that is “decaying” and in “horrible shape.” Now, the city will go from being the target of angry, allcaps tirades from the president on Twitter to the former stomping grounds of the country’s first female vice president.
“Having a president who uses data and best practices to inform policy will be a breath of fresh air,” said Abigail StewartKahn, interim director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
San Francisco has long struggled to keep up with housing demand due to restrictive zoning laws, red tape and political differences. The city also has been unable to get a handle on its homeless population, despite increased funding for the issue every year.
Carol Galante, faculty director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, said Biden’s housing policy platform could help San Francisco make a dent in its issues around affordability. She pointed to Biden’s promise to increase funding for the Section 8 program and renter’s tax credits that could help more lowincome families in the city.
But, she said, none of that extra funding will happen without approval from Congress, which also must deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Still, she said, Harris’ understanding of California’s issues with homelessness and housing could influence her priorities in office.
Having a Bay Area native in office could also mean local officials like Breed may have an easier time getting their calls answered in the White House.
“I would not underestimate the influence that that will have,” Galante said. “To me, the biggest benefit here is that we will have partners that are understanding of each community’s situation in a more nuanced way, as opposed to adversaries.”
San Francisco also may benefit under a Biden administration in its investment in infrastructure and transportation, in meeting its climate goals and in its protection of undocumented immigrants as a sanctuary city.
Meanwhile, when it comes to addressing the city’s tsunami of overdose deaths, it is unclear exactly where the Biden administration stands on safe injection sites. California also must pass legislation authorizing the site before San Francisco can move forward.
“We’re going to have some real tough conversations with the ( Biden) administration just to get them on board. We can’t assume just because we are on board in San Francisco that they won’t have a problem
with it,” Breed said in an interview this week. “I just need them to understand it, and understand what the data says. ... And also, give us a chance.”
Such legislation was vetoed under former Gov. Jerry Brown. But state Sen. Scott Wiener, DSan Francisco, who plans to propose the same legislation again next year, said he hopes Gov. Gavin Newsom will be more supportive. And on the federal level, Wiener said he expects the Biden administration to at least be neutral on the idea.
In a 2018 New York Times opinion piece, former U. S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said it is a federal felony to “maintain any location for the purpose of facilitating illicit drug use.” He warned that violations are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and that any city that opened one could face “hefty fines and forfeiture of the property used in the criminal activity.”
“Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites, cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action,” he wrote.
Wiener said he would be “shocked” if a Biden administration made similar threats if San Francisco moved forward with opening such a site.
“I can’t guarantee that we will get the support,” he said. “But I’m optimistic that we will, at a minimum, move from hostility to neutrality.”
While safe injection sites are not the only answer to curbing the city’s devastating opioid crisis, supporters of the idea say it’s at least one way the city can help people struggling with addiction to drugs, including fentanyl, which is blamed for hundreds of deaths a year.
Not only would it give people a safe place to use indoors, but it’s also a place where they can get connected to drug treatment if they are ready and if it is available. Similar sites have existed in Canada, Australia and Europe for years.
Kristen Marshall, director of the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, which manages the city’s response to overdoses, said the new administration will at the very least get the “DOJ off our backs.”
“We still have a s— ton of work to do,” she said. But “it’s important and it means something to not have a monster just constantly screaming about how much we all suck.”