by Randy Shaw on September 29, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
Nonprofit distribution boosts illegal drug markets
Mayor Lurie and the Board want to close open-air drug markets. Yet City Hall is fighting efforts to stop the distribution of drug paraphernalia in the Tenderloin.
What explains this hypocrisy?
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie campaigned on a pledge to close open-air drug markets. A Board majority supports this goal as well as other recovery efforts backed by Lurie. So why is City Attorney David Chiu is waging an all-out legal struggle for the right of nonprofits to continue distributing pipes, aluminum foil and other drug paraphernalia in the Tenderloin neighborhood?
You read this right. In the name of the people of San Francisco, City Attorney Chiu has multiple attorneys fighting to ensure drug users have free and ready access to drug paraphernalia in the Tenderloin. Its yet another reason San Francisco still attracts drug tourists.Those wondering why the city has made so little progress in reducing sidewalk drug activities need to understand this. Despite all the SFPD’s efforts, City Hall still allows nonprofits to encourage illegal sidewalk drug activities in multiple neighborhoods.
The Background
Seemingly everyone cheered when Mayor Lurie announced in April that the city would no longer allow nonprofits to distribute drug paraphernalia on sidewalks. But the mayor’s order had a loophole. It still allowed nonprofits like Glide and the SF Aids Foundation to hand out drug paraphernalia in their offices.
The nonprofits were supposed to give users a talk about treatment before handing over the materials that fuel open-air drug markets. But evidence in a current lawsuit against the city questions whether this happens. And giving a brief treatment talks to every person seeking to fuel their addiction does not justify the city sanctioning a practice which fuels open air drug markets.
In May 2024 a lawsuit was filed by families and small businesses in the Tenderloin to stop the city from using the neighborhood as a drug containment zone. Part of their complaint targeted nonprofits handing out drug paraphernalia in the Tenderloin.
With City Hall refusing to stop the practice, earlier this month the plaintiffs filed a request for injunctive relief. The demand is for the city to stop “directly or indirectly supplying fentanyl or methamphetamine-related drug paraphernalia to any individuals, groups, organization or entities within the Tenderloin neighborhood.” Paraphernalia like pipes, aluminum foil and other instruments attract both drug dealers and drug users to the Tenderloin.
It produced some great media stories. On September 7, Lynne Melendez of ABC TV ran a story in which the City Attorney claimed, “We firmly believe that lawsuits of this kind do not improve conditions on our streets. The courts are not equipped to step into the shoes of elected policymakers and voters in order to craft broad strategies to address crime, substance use, and homelessness.”
Yet Melendez pointed out that “last April David Chiu filed a complaint against two Tenderloin businesses for illegal gambling, fencing, drug sales and selling drug paraphernalia because he argued that “they attracted criminal and nuisance activity to the surrounding community… adversely affecting the neighborhood and the health, safety and well-being of those who live and work in the area…”
Chiu is using the courts to stop nuisance activities in the Tenderloin while at the same time claiming that the courts “are not equipped” to handles such lawsuits filed by residents and small businesses of the Tenderloin. Tenderloin families and businesses strongly back City Attorney Chiu’s filing of lawsuits to stop nuisance activities in the neighborhood. They remain mystified why he sees plaintiffs’ efforts to stop such nuisance activities as a misuse of the courts.
Sara Stinson of KRON 4 also did a great story on the injunction request. So did Leighton Woodhouse for the Times of London. All three stories pointed out that Tenderloin families and small businesses have endured sidewalk-filled drug use for years before filing suit; the “policymakers” Chiu says they should continue to rely on have had plenty of time to act.
Plaintiffs are not asking the court to “craft broad strategies.” To the contrary, they are asking the court to stop a specific practice. A practice that voters would overwhelming stop if given the chance. A practice our mayor and Board can stop tomorrow by announcing a ban on the handing our of drug paraphernalia in the Tenderloin (the ban should be citywide but the lawsuit calling for an injunction only covers the Tenderloin).
City Hall Must Respond
Reporters should ask the mayor and supervisors what their stance is on the drug paraphernalia issue. Voters deserve to know which elected officials support the city attorney’s position and which support Tenderloin families. Most of the Board is likely unaware of this issue. The media can change that dynamic.
I filed a Declaration in support of the injunction and the city is taking my deposition on October 14. The city attorney’s goal from the start of this case has been to use maximum pressure on plaintiffs and their supporters. They want to deter people from using the courts to protect their families and livelihoods.
Think about what the City Attorney wants to do. He wants to further disempower a Tenderloin community where people already feel City Hall doesn’t listen to them. A “win” for this city in this lawsuit will keep the illegal sidewalk drug use flowing in the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods.
That would be a huge victory for those profiting from the open-air drug trade. And a loss for anyone who cares about the city’s future.
If the mayor and Board have a problem with this, its time for them to act.
Randy Shaw
<I>Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. </I>
