Instead of potentially beginning in January 2022, California’s safe consumption site pilot will begin in January 2023 at the earliest. But sometimes in the legislature, it’s a windy road to get there,” Wiener says. Wiener also praised Wood for supporting his bill that would decriminalize psychedelics. Wood’s office confirmed to SF Weekly that the Health Committee will take up the bill again in January whether or not the federal government has provided clarity on the legal questions. However, Wiener notes he has a commitment from Wood to move the bill forward in January. Wiener says he’s “very disappointed” about the postponement, and acknowledges he has a “different perspective” on the potential legal issues Wood identified. Her spokesperson Andy Lynch told the Chronicle, “we don’t need to wait for a response from the federal government before passing SB 57.” “Allowing time for that response is the prudent thing to do.”Įxcept Breed doesn’t see things that way. Breed “has made a valid request and a response from DOJ would provide the clarity she is seeking,” Wood said in a statement. The lack of response was Wood’s justification for holding the bill. But so far, the feds have remained mum on the matter. Wiener’s bill, SB 57, would have legalized a safe consumption site pilot program through 2027 in just three cities: San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles.īreed and several other big city mayors sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in April to underscore the value of these sites, and get clarity on their legality. This time around, Wiener and his allies, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, were more optimistic about the federal government’s openness to the concept. Brown cited fear of prosecution by the Trump Administration in his veto message, but also registered his ideological opposition to safe consumption sites, writing, “enabling illegal and destructive drug use will never work.” One recent effort, from then-Assemblymember Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, and co-sponsored by Wiener, passed the legislature only to be vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2018. The postponed bill represents the third attempt to get these sites legalized in California over the past few years. “This is a delay that is measured in lives,” says Laura Thomas, director of harm reduction at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Despite the legal uncertainty at the federal level, Rhode Island will forge ahead with safe consumption sites early next year, while California continues to wait. Just two days after California’s bill was postponed, Rhode Island’s governor signed a bill authorizing safe consumption sites - making it the first state in the nation to do so. Assemblymember Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa, the committee’s chair and the decision maker behind the delay, says he postponed the bill to wait for clarity from the federal government on the legality of the sites.īut safe consumption site proponents and public health professionals don’t quite follow Wood’s logic. On July 6, a bill that would have legalized a small safe consumption site pilot program from state Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco was held up in the Assembly’s Health Committee. But this month, the latest and most promising effort to do so hit a roadblock, ensuring no safe consumption site will be established in California until 2023 at the earliest. San Francisco’s political leaders have long sought to open up such a facility in the city. One proven way to curb the carnage is through safe consumption sites - places where people can use drugs under the supervision of medical professionals, without fear of prosecution, and with access to treatment options. San Francisco, which recently has emerged as a major hotspot in America’s opioid crisis with more than 700 overdose deaths in 2020, makes up a disproportionate chunk of those fatalities. California saw a similar year-over-year increase, with 9,300 overdose deaths in 2020.
There’s no two ways to slice it: America is facing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, and the crisis is at its worst closer to home.Īccording to Centers for Disease Control data released last week, the United States saw 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, a 30 percent increase from the previous year.
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