Here’s how SF plans to tackle ‘unacceptable’ drug crisis in the Tenderloin – San Francisco Chronicle

A task force of police, prosecutors, public defenders and Tenderloin community members pulled together by the city to figure out how to stem the tide of drug-dealing released its recommendations this week after a year and a half of work.

Create a new city-run body to coordinate efforts by dozens of Tenderloin organizations, police and the District Attorneys office to increase safety.

Allocate more funds for community safety and train community workers on de-escalation techniques and how to care for people who have trauma.

Offer treatment to people who deal drugs to feed their addiction. Enforce harsher consequences on repeat offenders who deal drugs but have no substance abuse problems - not longer sentences, but other measures such as possibly automatically revoking probation.

Create a 24/7 treatment center in the Tenderloin that takes away some of the existing barriers of wait lists and documentation, reach out to the community to make them aware of the options and offer therapy, as many people seeking drug treatment also struggle with mental illness.

Prioritize housing for people during and after drug treatment.

Create multiple safe drug-use sites where individuals can consume drugs in the presence of staff who monitor for overdoses, provide cleaning materials and refer to treatment. Such sites exist around the world but arent yet sanctioned in the U.S.

The task force is driven by a sense of urgency as the citys drug crisis has risen to a frightening new level, its report said. Overdose drug deaths multiplied from 259 in 2018, to 441 in 2019, to 712 in 2020. Fatalities this year are on pace to surpass last years, largely because of the potent opioid fentanyl. Most of the deaths occurred in District 6, which encompasses the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mid-Market, and South of Market neighborhoods.

The insanely easy access to highly addictive and deadly drugs in San Franciscos Tenderloin district right now is shameful, said Max Young, a task force member and father who said the situation hurts families in the neighborhood.

Young closed his bar Mr. Smiths on 7th Street in 2019 because of rampant street drug dealing and said the same drug dealers remain outside his still-closed bar.

As long as we allow these guys to sell with impunity anywhere in the Tenderloin and not have any consequences, its never going to get better, he said.

Before the pandemic, there were about 24,500 injection drug users in the city, with an estimated 4,000 homeless, addicted and mentally ill.

The Task Force was created in late 2019 by legislation from Supervisor Matt Haney amid concerns that there wasnt a plan to deal with street drug dealing, he said. It included representatives from the District Attorneys Office, Police Department and Public Defenders Office as well as nine community members and the Department of Public Health.

A majority of the task force backed six recommendations, but not everyone agreed with all of them.

The failed War on Drugs has taught us that we cannot incarcerate our way out of this problem, and we need to continue to focus on new approaches, including comprehensive public health innovations, said Rachel Marshall with the District Attorneys office.

Stanford University Professor of Psychiatry Keith Humphreys, who focuses on addiction medicine public policy, said he was struck and impressed that a group in service-focused San Francisco urged stopping drug dealing as a law enforcement responsibility.

Its grappling with the reality that yes, there are people who deal drugs who are low-level addicted people and I feel really bad for them and I want to help them, Humphreys said. And there are a lot of people who are comfortable making money off doing something that kills people.

Haney said he supported all the recommendations.

The status quo is entirely unacceptable and is having devastating impacts on these neighborhoods, he said. We have to have the resolve to change it.

Public Defender Mano Raju took issue with the reports recommendations to focus on policing and prosecution as part of a broader strategy.

He said overcriminalizing and overpolicing Black, brown, poor and immigrant community members who are often victims of trafficking, duress, or acting out of dire conditions of poverty or illness, plays an outsized factor in the alarming level of desperation on our streets.

This reports recommendations to divert even more public resources to policing and prosecuting communities who so desperately need housing, employment opportunities, and public health care should be rigorously interrogated on its logic and motivations, he added.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter@mallorymoench

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Here's how SF plans to tackle 'unacceptable' drug crisis in the Tenderloin - San Francisco Chronicle