San Francisco Opens Drug Drinking Center to Address Stimulant and Fentanyl Epidemics and Street Crisis

Field staff will monitor participants’ vital signs, respond to overdose, undo, and help find and navigate services. According to online information, when people get off high ground, staff can take them to their next destination, such as shelters, treatment programs, clinics, or “home locations.” The site is operated by the non-profit drug treatment provider HealthRight360, but is funded by the city.

The center is initially open daily from 8 am to 8 pm and can be expanded up to 24 hours a day.

Authorities say the opening of the long-awaited drug-drinking center will provide a long-term solution for people suffering from addiction and reduce the number of people who behave irregularly or dangerously on the streets after a three-year plan. I want

“Increased drug use and overdose in San Francisco show that people must take action and try new things to get the help they need,” Bleed said in a June 2021 statement. Said. It’s a place where you can take people who shouldn’t be alone on the street, calm down, and connect to other services. “

The need is well over 20 beds. In the final comprehensive count of 2019, the city counted 4,000 people suffering from substance use, mental illness and the homeless.

The 18-month pilot program has finally come to fruition as San Francisco continues to work on public drug use and reducing fatal overdose. The opening of the center follows the state of emergency of Mayor London Breed at Tenderloin in December to address the crisis of overdose.It will come for a week After the news The drop-in center, which connects people to the services of the UN Plaza, which is the centerpiece of the emergency, will be closed at the end of the year.

The Tenderloin Center was aimed at helping people get down the street, get basic services, and find long-term housing and treatment, but critics allowed the use of drugs in the center’s outdoor areas. Raised a problem with the city that it made addiction possible. Supporters said it provided a low barrier space for people to get help.

The debate can reignite in a calm center. Last year, the city said people would not be allowed to use drugs in the new sober center, but would not be kicked out if they were caught using them.

Recovery advocate Tom Wolfe said he wanted to “hold judgment” at a cool center to see what would happen. He upheld the idea three years ago, but hesitated more after the city allowed drug use at the Tenderloin Center, objecting to its adverse effects on recovery.

“I am grateful for the fact that (the city) is trying to do something to deal with drugs and people at stake,” he said. “I’m not 100% sold as this low barrier approach, which gives people space to use dope when it’s not in a clinical environment like a drug use location, is really the best approach.”

He hopes all the beds will be full, but said it’s important to see what happens after the visitor leaves the center.

“What about that person?” He asked.

The federal government has banned supervised drug consumption sites with medical professionals, but New York City has opened two. City officials, including Bleed, have been discussing opening a consumer site in San Francisco for years. New YorkHowever, the plan is not moving forward and is a supporter of frustrating harm reduction.

Her spokesman, Jeff Cretan, said Tuesday that the city was still in talks with the Justice Department while the Justice Department was working on a “very real problem.” He said it was an “option” to have a nonprofit organization like New York run the site to avoid liability, but the city was still “working with the federal government to find a way forward. rice field”.

The city began planning a drug drinking center in 2019, but a pandemic delayed the planned opening in 2020. Announced in June last year The center will open in the fall. I didn’t immediately understand why the store was delayed again.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who co-chaired the city’s Stimulant Task Force, which recommended opening such a site in 2019, said: Told the chronicle In the spring of 2021, he was pleased that the site was under construction, but worried about delays and worried that this little pilot would not be enough to meet his needs.

“We are confident that we will find that we need more than one,” he said at the time.

According to online information about the center, experts are developing criteria to assess the effectiveness of the program, which leads to improvements and “additional drugs in other areas where the need is known to exist”. We may support the initiative to create a crisis response center. “

Program costs, long-term services provided, and other details were not immediately available on Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Please check for updates.