Thread by @ShellenbergerMD

Since Tuesday, San Francisco's city government has been secretly operating an unauthorized illicit drug consumption site in direct violation of state & federal laws. It is part of a "linkage center" supposedly aimed at getting homeless addicts into rehab.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/san-francisc…

This is a big story. I am breaking it with journalist @lwoodhouse

There is no question that the supervised illicit drug consumption site is illegal & unauthorized.

Spokespersons for the Mayor @LondonBreed & city contractor @UrbanAlchemyUA refused repeated requests to comment.

San Francisco Mayor Breed generated national publicity last month when she announced a sweeping crackdown on open air drug use & drug dealing in the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood. Shortly after, she announced a “linkage center” aimed at connecting street addicts to rehab.

Breed’s announcement came in the midst of a local, state, and national debate over whether the city should open a “supervised drug consumption” site as a tactic for reducing overdose deaths.

In fact, the site has been up and running since Tuesday inside the linkage center.

The linkage center is located at 1172 Market Street in the United Nations Plaza, the city’s largest open air drug market. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center.

The supervised illicit drug use site is directly behind the green mesh. The signs on the fence and sidewalks say “Tenderloin Linkage Center” and name “Food and Water,” “Hygiene Services,” and “Social Support,” but make no mention of the supervised drug use site.

There is an on-going national debate over the efficacy of supervised drug consumption sites, which are prohibited by state and federal laws, and a continuing local debate over whether and where to open one in San Francisco.

Breed and some on the SF Board of Supervisors have advocated an illicit drug use site and purchased properties to serve addicts, but the city never approved the creation of a supervised consumption site at the linkage center and the site is in violation of state and federal laws.

Journalist @lwoodhouse & I are the first to report on the operation of the illegal supervised drug consumption site at the linkage center. The two of us witnessed a half-dozen people smoking fentanyl in an outdoor area on the site, and two people passed out at a table.

An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told us that two people had overdosed and been revived since the site opened on Tuesday.

A PR person denied the existence of the site & acknowledged such a site would be illegal, but other employees repeatedly confirmed it.

There is no question either of the existence of the site or its illegality.

The existence of the site was first discovered by reporter @EricaJSandberg

Senior officials from multiple city agencies & contractors were on-site

Full report here:

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/san-francisc…