If drugs were legalized country-wide then SF wouldn’t have the concentration it does and it would seem like a nice place.
This has happened but it's not substantial, most homeless in CA were living here and homed before becoming homeless[0]
> San Francisco has a drug problem simply because it’s one of few places in the country where it’s safe to have a drug problem
I've spent a lot of time volunteering with the homeless in SF. This doesn't match the data or anecdotal experience. Many drug addicts follow the path of becoming homeless (overwhelmingly because of cost of living) and transitioning into hard drugs to cope with the pain of living on the street.
[0] https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/our-studies/califor...
From a huge recent survey of homelessness in California:
> Nine out of ten participants lost their last housing in California; 75% of participants lived in the same county as their last housing.
https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CA...
A while ago I did an experiment, I found the list of people convicted for typical "homeless" crimes in SF, and did a background search on them. About 90% had extensive crime records in other states, far away from CA.
This is not a definitive result for sure, but it's suggestive.
> Nearly 95% of people arrested for drug use in San Francisco since May 30 are from out of town, Police Chief Bill Scott said at a public hearing this week, corroborating perceptions that many residents already have — that their city has become a magnet for the narcotics trade.
Honestly, just do the same exercise, get the booking records from jails and run background search on the names.
2. Even if you believe them, this is about who they chose to arrest during a two week period in one small neighborhood. You can't get any more cherry-picked than that.
3. This doesn't even mention homeless people.
> 2. Even if you believe them, this is about who they chose to arrest during a two week period in one small neighborhood. You can't get any more cherry-picked than that. > 3. This doesn't even mention homeless people.
Do you know what "Tenderloin" is in SF?
In any event, I feel that metric used by UCSF is really not a good one to the point where it's almost dishonest. It's not hard to come up with questions that do a better job at trying to answer whether CA is burdened by individuals moving from out-of-state to make use of more generous social programs and/or lax drug policy.
No thank you. I don't want to catch what SF has. I'll vote against anyone who suggests we need to legalize in my area.