Arresting drug users and forcing them to get clean is a San Francisco lawmaker’s plan to crack down on the unstable, sometimes dangerous addicts who have taken over city streets and turned Democrats’ urban voting base against liberal politicians.
Matt Dorsey, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, asked city police and health agencies this month to formulate a plan involving at least 100 drug-related arrests per day and compelling people to undergo detoxification to fight the fentanyl-driven lawlessness in his district.
Mr. Dorsey said the simple goal is to restore order and preserve Democrats’ vision for running American cities.
He said creating more bike lanes and improving housing density don’t matter if residents are “worried about being pushed in front of a subway train” by someone having a drug-induced episode.
He said his party’s most loyal voters are increasingly expressing those concerns.
“The people who are living with Democratic Party governance are the most irritated with it because they’re living with the failures of policies that aren’t getting around this stuff,” Mr. Dorsey told The Washington Times.
San Francisco’s mission to put homeless people into housing has guided city policy for years. Mr. Dorsey said the pandemic exposed the policy as a form of drug enabling and broke locals’ commitment to the cause.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, temporarily moved tens of thousands of homeless people into hotels to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in overcrowded shelters.
An independent evaluation last year deemed Project Roomkey a success, but Mr. Dorsey said it essentially converted San Francisco hotels into drug dens.
The statewide effort, combined with what he said is the city’s primary interest in moving people off the streets and into government-subsidized housing, exacerbated overdoses. Dealers began posting up by buildings to support people’s addictions, with fatal consequences, Mr. Dorsey said.
Overdose deaths in San Francisco jumped from 441 in 2019 to 726 in 2020, according to the chief medical examiner’s office.
The city has recorded at least 600 overdose deaths per year since.
On Sixth Street, Mr. Dorsey said, at least 200 people crowd the sidewalks daily to buy, sell and use fentanyl, methamphetamines and other narcotics.
“San Francisco is becoming and has become, I fear, a destination city for drug use and drug dealing,” he said. “It’s driving other kinds of crimes, like retail theft, issues around street conditions, behavioral health challenges, where people who are in the grips of their addictions are acting out, sometimes violently.”
Mr. Dorsey, who was a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department before joining the Board of Supervisors in 2022, sent a letter of inquiry to the city police, the sheriff’s office, the fire department, the district attorney’s office and the Department of Public Health about making the mass arrests and compulsory detoxification a possibility.
He wants the agencies to investigate how to increase jail capacity and officer staffing to accommodate the arrest target. The agencies will take advantage of Proposition 36, a ballot measure passed overwhelmingly in the fall, which provides that people repeatedly arrested for drug use will be given the option of mandatory treatment or up to three years in prison.
Mr. Dorsey said newly sworn-in Mayor Daniel Lurie is aware of his plan, but the two have not discussed it in depth.
Mr. Lurie, a political newcomer and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, won the competitive mayoral race in November on a promise to address the city’s quality of life issues, particularly those related to drug abuse. He has declared a state of emergency over fentanyl.
Mr. Dorsey faces resistance from some fellow supervisors.
Jackie Fielder, a newly elected Democrat representing San Francisco’s District 9, said that “arresting people for drug use is not a serious strategy.”
“It has been the strategy for San Francisco since 2021. And it has failed,” Ms. Fielder posted on X. “The biggest problem? There is not enough treatment infrastructure!”
The Coalition on Homelessness, a city-based nonprofit group, likened Mr. Dorsey’s proposal to something out of Project 2025, a list of national policy recommendations crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Democrat Kamala Harris tried to use Project 2025 as a political issue in the presidential race.
“Jailing people with substance use disorders leads to an increase in overdoses,” the coalition posted on X. “Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s tried and failed proposal only perpetuates the revolving door of homelessness. The COH supports a housing first approach and addiction treatment that is accessible.”
Mr. Dorsey told The Times that the coalition’s approach to San Francisco’s twin issues of homelessness and drug abuse is pushing people toward President-elect Donald Trump, even if only as an act of protest.
Mr. Dorsey, a recovering addict, said treating San Francisco’s addicts with “tough love” is the only way out of their mess. He said it’s imperative to act before people give up on the Democratic Party for good.
“We’re five years away, if we don’t fix this, from having people vote with their feet,” Mr. Dorsey said. “We could get back to another time like we had in the ’50s and ’60s, where it’s just not worth being in cities anymore.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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