Do you support safe drinking sites?

This is the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Four candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which stretches from the east end of Golden Gate Park to Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and Western Addition, Lower Haight and Hayes Valley, and most of the Tenderloin.

Amid the ongoing debate over how to address the drug epidemic and homelessness, two San Francisco supervisors earlier this month outlined a plan to prioritize housing options based on ‘abstinence for the formerly homeless, which would be a departure from the state’s current “Housing First” policy. .

This week we asked a simple question on a controversial topic: Do you support safe drug consumption sites?

Two of our candidates say they would. Others range from the push for drug-free options to mandatory drug treatment to evictions.

Monitoring these sites can help prevent overdose deaths among people who would otherwise use drugs elsewhere. Meanwhile, critics consider these sites enabling drug addiction.

We’ve already asked our candidates related questions, like their thoughts on law enforcement’s crackdown on drug trafficking or their planned approaches to fentanyl overdoses. Read the rest of the District 5 questions here.

Note: I will be at the Urban Ritual Café, 201 Steiner Street, on Thursday, June 20 at 4:30 p.m. Come say hello and share your thoughts on the election or District 5.

Allen Jones

• Job: Activist
• Age:67
• Residence: Tenant in District 5 since November 2021
• Transportation: Wheelchair
• Education: Teaching Bible Studies in Juvenile Hall
• LANGUAGES: English

We don’t need to give addicts a safe place to take drugs; we need to give them a safe place, away from drugs.

In June 2016, my brother died of a drug overdose while housed in an otherwise supportive urban program. Contrary to public health policy, he placed my brother, a notorious drug addict, in a hotel known for literally having drug dealing at its front door. Will the Department of Public Health also ignore its policy on safe drug consumption sites? My opinion: yes!