Marshall Davenport uses a torch lighter to heat a crystal methamphetamine pipe in San Francisco in 2025. Torch lighters produce a concentrated, high-temperature flame that makes it easier for meth users to light up.
Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. Chronicle
With summer approaching, San Francisco is preparing to welcome tourists from around the world. But in the Tenderloin, we are preparing for something else: another season of enabling death.
It is time for the city to stop the hypocrisy and ban the sale of glass-blown bubble pipes and disposable torch lighters. They aren’t tobacco accessories or household tools. They are the essential machinery of a methamphetamine epidemic.
As a recovering addict, I can tell you what these items represent: a direct invitation to relapse.
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Every time I walk past a storefront or a sidewalk vendor openly hawking these glass pipes and torches, it is a slap in the face to my recovery and thousands of others trying to stay clean in this neighborhood. These tools have no legitimate purpose in a community struggling with record-breaking overdose rates. They serve one function: to facilitate the consumption of poison.
San Francisco’s leadership claims to care about harm reduction, yet it allows the hardware of self-destruction to be sold like candy on every street corner. If we are serious about saving lives and cleaning up the Tenderloin, we must start by removing the literal tools of the trade.
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Peter Sherman, San Francisco
Stop the lawyer ads
Regarding “Bay Area TV ads suggest life is a continuous cycle of disaster, litigation” (Native Son, SFChronicle.com, April 25): Columnist Carl Nolte exposed something that we are all paying for: all the commercials from personal injury attorneys seeking millions of dollars in settlements if you hire them.
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I was raised with the belief that the law profession was a field with integrity. Today, we see ads from Rich Barnes of the Barnes Firm on television in California when he is not licensed to practice law in the state.
When I was reviewing my homeowner’s insurance policy with my agent, I asked him if I was paying for lawsuit settlements with my increased insurance rates, and the answer was “yes.”
Maybe we should boycott the TV stations that support this miscarriage of justice.
Terrence J. McGrath, Pleasanton
Museums blow it
Regarding “Don’t blow on the art: SFMOMA visit sparks a museum etiquette lesson” (Arts & Exhibits, SFChronicle.com, April 16): The first time I grokked a mobile by Alexander Calder, it was because a guard at the Guggenheim Museum called a pal over to blow it into motion.
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Having signs that say, “Do not blow on the art,” lets us know that the impulse is human. Why shame humanity? (And, yeah, don’t blow on the art. Not for moral reasons but because the sign says don’t.)
Protecting art is primary, but you can kill it in the process. A mobile that does not move is not a mobile.
Like me, the “past middle-aged” woman referenced in the story may be from a time before Calder’s works became fragile and certainly before they were worth $15 million.
When artists had a say, Carl Andre invited viewers to walk on his works so we could desecrate the preciousness. But when the Andre is on loan, a velvet rope says, “Do not touch,” and the priceless work of art is rendered meaningless.
I am not suggesting that anyone lick the Cezanne or toss out manners altogether. But the woman in the story was making up for what museums often fail to do: Hang the mobiles so they move.
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Ironically, the work of America’s most easygoing artist is used to shame a viewer. A visit to the museum should not lead to public ridicule.
Porter for the people
Regarding “Yee deserves thanks and praise for thinning Dem field for governor” (Letters to the Editor, SFChronicle.com, April 23): The letter writer referred to gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter as milquetoast. That’s a poor characterization. She is whip smart and is known for putting hypocritical Republicans in their place.
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Republicans don’t care about poor people; Porter is a champion of the little guy and is the only candidate not taking donations from corporate interests.
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She is quite the opposite of milquetoast and will make a great governor of the people.