Mass Arrest Strategy is Predictably Failing as Overdose Deaths Rise 50% Under Mayor Lurie, Time for a Different Approach
In just three months under Mayor Daniel Lurie’s leadership, San Francisco has seen a 50% spike in overdose deaths, with 192 lives lost in early 2025 alone. That’s nearly two people dying daily from preventable causes. We’re seeing too much of the same failed War on Drugs and governing by press release that we saw with the last administration.
Lurie made big declarations during his first weeks in office, quickly passing his “Fentanyl State of Emergency” ordinance and “Breaking the Cycle” initiative. The rhetoric and the initiatives were familiar. Back in 2021, Mayor Breed issued the same announcements, which she reissued in subsequent years, each time as if they were something new.
What actually changed when he took office? The doubling down on aggressive police sweeps, mass arrests for drug use, and rolling back on harm reduction programs. These moves appease the self-described “law-and-order” crowd, who equate punishment with progress regardless of impact or evidence, but they are actively making things worse for the people and communities most impacted by addiction and overdose.
If you look past the press releases and corporate media headlines, you’ll see that what’s actually happening is people in active addiction are being shuffled from one block to another, arrested, jailed, and released, in a revolving door that does nothing to reduce drug use or prevent deaths. Meanwhile, science-backed approaches like overdose prevention centers, supportive housing, and expanded access to treatment are being sidelined.
But it is not just that mass arrests and sweeps don’t work, they actually make the situation worse. These strategies drain money from real solutions to fund headlines. At the same time, the actual public health research shows that arresting people for their addiction leads to substantially greater overdose fatalities. A San Francisco specific study shows this exact point. The study, released in 2022, concluded “traditional policing approach to drug use-related crime did not reduce arrests or incarceration and was associated with a risk of future overdose fatalities.” Meanwhile, neighborhood residents report increasing street drug activity, the predictable result of a strategy that focuses on moving people block to block instead of helping them get off the street and address their addiction.
Mayor Lurie can continue selling the public a failed fantasy that we can arrest our way out of the fentanyl crisis (even as elsewhere he admits we can’t) or he can lead San Francisco into a new era grounded in compassion, evidence, and care. Right now, people are dying, and instead of meeting this crisis with solutions that work, our city is stuck back in the same old PR cycle.
Fortunately, there is another path, if Mayor Lurie has the courage to take it. Working with health advocates, we set the table for him. We commissioned an extensive road map published in December 2024 for how San Francisco could implement Zurich’s successful Four Pillars here in our City. Supervisor Fielder is holding a hearing on it this week. Now is a great time for SF to change course and use a strategy proven to work, save lives, and improve street conditions.
