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San Francisco Mayor London Breed led two dozen fellow mayors to urge the
Biden administration on Monday to step up enforcement against trafficking
of fentanyl, start a public awareness campaign against open-air drug
markets and increase public health interventions to address an out-of-
control epidemic nationwide.

Breed and her counterparts also came out in support of a polarizing
federal bill called the HALT Fentanyl Act, which would permanently
classify the powerful synthetic opioid as a Schedule 1 drug.

The Biden administration supports the bill and the House of
Representatives just passed it, sending it to the U.S. Senate. But dozens
of human rights groups opposed it and more than 100 Democrats voted
against the measure, arguing it would lead to unjustified incarceration
and fearing it would cripple the study of fentanyl as a medical treatment, Forbes reported.

Breed faces immense pressure from local critics across the political
spectrum who say either she isn’t doing enough or not pursuing the right approach to address open-air drug dealing. She said in a statement Monday
she is doing everything she can to address fentanyl markets.

“Despite the strong and laudable efforts of our local law enforcement
agencies, we know San Francisco—and cities across the United States—needs
more support,” she said. “The trafficking and dealing of fentanyl is a
national crisis, and requires a robust response from the federal
government.”

Breed has increasingly been outspoken about the need for more federal and
state help as San Francisco fails to stem the tide of more and more people dying from fentanyl. The problem is not unique to San Francisco, with drug overdose deaths sweeping the country and governments struggling to keep up
with an increasingly lethal drug supply.

Most recently, Breed directed police to pick up enforcement against people
who are high in public – to the protests of advocates and experts who
argue criminalization and forced treatment of people with substance use disorder in the past hasn’t solved a public health crisis.

Breed will soon open a command center near Civic Center bringing together
local and state law enforcement and other agencies to coordinate a
response to drug dealing.

Monday’s resolution came from the U.S. Council of Mayors, authored by
Breed and sponsored by 23 other mayors. The list included Eric Adams of
New York, Muriel Bowser of Washington D.C. and in California, the mayors
of San Jose, Fremont, San Diego, Sacramento, Irvine, Riverside and
Bakersfield.

The resolution urged the Biden administration “to act immediately and
increase its enforcement and prosecution of high-level fentanyl drug traffickers and dealers in communities throughout the country” and form
joint investigations with local law enforcement.

It urged the federal government to “significantly increase its public communications that our neighborhoods and commercial areas must be drug-
free and safe from any open-air drug markets, including online and social
media sales of drugs to the general public.”

It also called on Biden’s administration to “increase access to a spectrum
of public health interventions, including harm reduction services and
substance use disorder treatment, and drug testing to improve surveillance
of and response to a rapidly changing drug supply, including track-and-
trace of biopharmaceuticals at risk of contamination.”

San Francisco wants to see more federal dollars put toward those efforts locally as it has been pouring millions into law enforcement and drug
treatment in response to the crisis.

Breed has been asking for more help of late. She met with U.S.
Representative Nancy Pelosi and the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern
District of California Ismail Ramsey about drug dealing two weeks ago, but
did not disclose details of the meeting.

Breed had also repeatedly asked Gov. Gavin Newsom for help. Newsom
responded by sending California Highway Patrol to the Tenderloin to
enforce drug laws and California National Guard to assist San Francisco
police with intelligence-gathering to build drug trafficking
investigations.

Breed has taken her own actions over the past year and a half, but the
number of drug overdose deaths have only increased in the first three
months of this year compared to a peak during the pandemic.

She ordered more police to crack down on open-air drug dealing, appointed
a District Attorney who has filed more fentanyl dealing charges than her predecessor, declared an emergency in the hard-hit Tenderloin and opened
an aid center that allowed people to use drugs with staff on hand to
reverse overdoses.

But those measures were temporary, and after the center closed, more
people died of overdoses. Breed’s health department is implementing an
overdose prevention plan, but some goals are still a year or two away.

Reach Mallory Moench: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com

You voted for it, you got exactly what you were told you would get.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-mayor-breed-fentanyl-biden- resolution-18136750.php

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