Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, where we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election, with answers capped at 100 words. All the responses will ultimately be compiled onto a single page, where readers can peruse the potential supervisors’ stances on upwards of 40 topics before it’s time to vote in November.
So, here’s our latest question for the District 5 candidates: How will you address the fentanyl crisis, as overdose deaths continue to rise?
Allen Jones
In 2016, one of my brothers died due to a fentanyl overdose. Until I read the autopsy, I never heard of fentanyl. The city not following its policy is partly to blame. It placed a man with a 40-year heroin habit in a hotel where heroin was sold right at the front door. My brother did not know fentanyl was in his heroin.
But the first thing I will do is talk to at least 25 people who use the drug knowingly.
Bilal Mahmood
Living in the Tenderloin, I walk past the open-air drug market a block from my apartment every night. I have seen first-hand how Dean Prestonโs failed leadership has led to overdoses in the neighborhood increasing 20%.
We need new initiatives based on evidence to get results for our district. To help those suffering on our streets, we must streamline the hiring of our nurses and essential workers, which are understaffed.
The drug dealers, in kind, must be arrested and held accountable via drug market intervention strategies that mix restorative and punitive justice. This approach has led to a … Read more.
Dean Preston
San Francisco police arrested more than 800 people for public drug use and more than 900 for dealing in recent months. Yet the overdose crisis continues, and only 12 people arrested for drug use sought treatment.
It is clear that law enforcement alone will not stop overdoses.
My office led efforts to create the cityโs first overdose prevention plan. I will continue to advocate for a Wellness Hub in the Tenderloin. Last month, I directed the Budget and Legislative Analyst to expedite a roadmap for San Francisco to implement the Four Pillars Strategy based on prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at eleni@missionlocal.com.
Read the rest of the District 5 questions here, and the entire “Meet the Candidates” series here. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
Huh. Bilal Mahmood apes the same โlaw & orderโ talking points as his billionaire funders Scary Garry โdie slowโ Tan and Chris Larson. Bilal might have some cred if heโd actually lived in the TL for more than just a few months; the guy just moved here this election cycle (from SOMA where he moved so he could run against Matt Haney). So what exactly does Bilal know about our local neighborhoods? Maybe too if Mahmood hadnโt just fallen off the turnip truck heโd know that the TL was recently gerrymandered from D7 (Haney and Dorsey) into D5. And if Bilal wasnโt a total carpetbagger, heโd know that the Mayor has declared NOT ONE BUT TWO very expensive states of emergency in the TL with no improved results. The first was in 12/21 with then Supervisor Matt Haney. Breed declared a second state of emergency in Spring of 2023 involving the CHP and the National Guard. The obscene spike in overdose deaths began after Breed closed the life saving OD Prevention Site. How can a self proclaimed โneuroscientistโ refuse to acknowledge that Breedโs decision to double down on arresting addicts and throwing them into jail ISNโT AND WILL NEVER WORK? How can a โneuroscientistโ reject the chorus of global scientists and the overwhelming scientific data and studies on addiction and overdose deaths? Itโs ironic that if he wasnโt an idealogue running for political office, Bilal Mahmood would realize that he agrees with pretty much everything Dean Preston says and does.
Not one of them mentions the obvious solution of making narcan more easily available? How disappointing.
Narcan is part of the overdose prevention plan Dean Preston mentions: https://www.sf.gov/reports/october-2022/overdose-prevention-plan-2022
“Within 1-2 years: … Increase citywide naloxone [Narcan] distribution from 47,000 kits to 75,000 kits annually. Have naloxone available in 50% of supportive housing facilities”
The plan is really well written, but is collecting dust because Mayor Breed pivoted from evidence-based harm reduction to punitive policies that don’t work. There’s not much Dean or any supervisor can do about the mayor refusing to implement the plan, which is what makes Mahmood’s “failed leadership” swipe so cynical (the failed leadership is on the mayor’s part).
London Breedโs cruelty and inaction toward our cityโs most vulnerable people so she can score votes is truly despicable. She has stalled for over 600 days on releasing the already budgeted $10 million for elevator repairs in SROs in the TL and itโs absolutely SICKENING! Further proof that Breed will do anything to try to make Preston look bad. The obscene spike in overdose deaths is a direct result of her political calculation to close the OD Prevention Center where hundreds of ODs were prevented. Increasing the suffering of vulnerable disabled and elderly folks who are trapped in their homes because they cannot navigate 4 flights of stairs is VILE. This mayor is actually harming our people.