Mayor Lurie: Only 14% of New Addiction Treatment Patients Stay on Medication for Six Months

At his monthly Board of Supervisors address, Mayor Daniel Lurie put a hard number on San Francisco's addiction treatment retention problem: just 14% of patients who newly start medication treatment remain on it continuously for six months. Lurie acknowledged the city has opened more than 200 new treatment beds since January 2025 and that more than 17,000 people are now in treatment, up 17% in a year, but argued that opening beds is not enough if patients cycle off medication within weeks. His proposed fix is expanding access to long-acting buprenorphine, which requires fewer doses and less daily follow-through than standard formulations, paired with tighter follow-up care. The remarks came in the context of persistent street conditions around the 16th and 24th Street BART plazas in the Mission District. The 14% figure is notable because it is the mayor measuring a failure in his own program rather than claiming credit for the beds added.