SAN FRANCISCO — Reeling from drug overdose deaths and scenes of people smoking fentanyl on sidewalks, San Francisco moved closer Thursday to adopting a ''recovery first'' drug policy that sets abstinence from illicit drugs as its primary goal, a proposal that has prompted heated debate in the city that pioneered harm reduction.
Opponents of Supervisor Matt Dorsey's proposal say its emphasis on stopping drug use alienates those who are not ready to quit, while proponents say the city has been far too permissive and making drug use safer does not help break the cycle of addiction.
Dorsey, himself recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, amended the proposal in his public safety committee to clarify that distributing safer-use paraphernalia and linking people to social services regardless of whether they are using remain critical to the city's response.
But more than an hour of public comment with cheers and boos from both sides underscored just how touchy the issue remains.
''No one dies from harm reduction,'' Patt Denning said. ''People die from conventional abstinence-based treatments because they're either left out or kicked out if they don't comply with abstinence.''
Brendan Harris, who said he has been clean for six years, countered that harm reduction tactics cannot go on forever and people need a firm if compassionate push into treatment.
''We can't just keep enabling drugs over and over again,'' he said.
In recent years San Francisco's public health department advised people who use drugs to do so with friends to try to prevent overdose deaths. Critics said that sent the wrong message.
