Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 8 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Wednesday.
District 8 includes neighborhoods in the center of the city, including the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Duboce Triangle, Dolores Heights, Parnassus Heights, Ashbury Heights, Corona Heights and Diamond Heights.
Over the course of his administration, Mayor Daniel Lurie has worked to restrict access to drug use supplies like pipes, clean needles, and foil.
In April 2025, he required city-funded nonprofits to offer counseling and addiction treatment before handing out any drug use supplies. The nonprofits were also banned from giving out smoking supplies in public spaces like parks and sidewalks.
This change, Lurie said, would help address rampant open-air drug use on San Francisco’s streets.
“What we are doing is not working,” he said. “We have seen too many of our neighbors die on our streets, and we are pivoting.”
But critics wanted San Francisco to continue offering harm reduction services, which help drug users stay safer as they continue to use. They were concerned that the policy change would lead to an increase in dangerous practices like reusing needles, potentially driving up overdoses and disease transmission.
“San Francisco has long been a beacon for evidence-based compassionate response to the realities of substance use and with this decision, we risk becoming a cautionary tale,” Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2025.
A year later, in April 2026, Lurie’s policy seemed to have little impact, a Chronicle article found. Users could still easily obtain drug use supplies, and many providers said that they had already offered counseling when handing out supplies. HIV infections and overdose deaths did not increase.
During the city budget process this year, Lurie doubled down on scaling back harm reduction, proposing over $1 million in cuts. Some of that funding was restored by the Board of Supervisors in the final budget.
This week’s question: Do you support Mayor Daniel Lurie’s efforts to restrict access to drug paraphernalia? What harm-reduction services do you support continuing versus cutting?
Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A green background means the candidate answered yes, a red background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate answered ambiguously.
Gary McCoy
Job: Former staffer to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360
Age: 48
Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco for 24 years and District 8 for 15 years
Transportation: Driving, biking, public transit and walking
Education: Former City College of San Francisco student, certified phlebotomy technician from Bay Area Medical Academy
Languages: English
I share the mayor’s urgency in ending public drug use and ensuring our streets are clean and free of syringes. Restricting syringe access will unfortunately make this problem worse, not better. People will use drugs whether or not we provide clean supplies – the only question is whether they share needles and are exposed to or spread HIV and Hepatitis C.
If we want to get to zero new HIV infections, we must provide syringe access. I support keeping syringe services and naloxone distribution so that people can stay alive until they get connected to treatment.
Endorsed by: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, San Francisco Labor Council, Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, San Francisco Tenants Union, UESF, Working Families Party, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters … see more here.
Michael Nguyen
Job: Patent attorney
Age: 44
Residency: Renter, has lived in District 8 since 2006
Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Southwestern University, law degree from University of California Law San Francisco
Languages: English, some Spanish, some Vietnamese
No, I don’t support restricting access to harm reduction supplies. I agree with SF AIDS Foundation CEO Tyler TerMeer: reducing visibility doesn’t reduce the need. When access shrinks, engagement shrinks.
I’m a strong proponent of the Four Pillars approach, and right now prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and enforcement aren’t getting equal investment. Harm reduction and prevention deserve just as much funding as treatment and enforcement, because that’s what the science backs. We need to stomp on the status quo, but by following the evidence, not by reducing visibility for the cameras.
Endorsed by: GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club (#2), San Francisco Green Party, former supervisor Dean Preston, UESF, Working Families Party … see more here.
Darshini Patel
Job: Former DoorDash employee, worked on the 2012 Obama campaign and the 2024 Harris campaign, former Obama staffer
Age: 38
Residency: Homeowner, has lived in District 8 for 10 cumulative years since 2010
Transportation: Public transit, walking and biking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College
Languages: Gujarati, English
No. I support Mayor Lurie’s goal to connect more people to treatment, but I would not restrict evidence-backed harm reduction services.
I would continue naloxone, sterile syringe access, and safer-smoking supplies. Harm-reduction services do more than prevent death and disease; they create trusted points of contact that can successfully connect people to treatment.
I would pair those services with proactive counseling, immediate treatment referrals, treatment on demand, and expanded LEAD-style diversion. Harm reduction and treatment are not competing strategies. The most effective system keeps people alive, builds trust, and ensures care is available when it’s needed.
Endorsed by: UESF, Solidarity Club SF, San Franciscans for Social Housing, Small Business Forward, Supervisor Myrna Melgar (#2), Rose Pak Asian American Club (#3)
Manny Yekutiel
Job: Founder and owner of Manny’s, co-founder and former executive director of Civic Joy Fund
Age: 36
Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco since 2012 and District 8 since 2013
Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Williams College
Languages: English, Hebrew
I do support Mayor Lurie’s efforts to restrict the distribution of drug paraphernalia like pipes and foil. We should continue proven lifesaving services, including naloxone, overdose-prevention education, and immediate connections to treatment.
The larger issue is whether San Francisco is actually helping people struggling with addiction get healthy and stable. We need to dramatically expand treatment, stabilization services, residential care, and sober housing.
Our system should be built around moving people from crisis to recovery, not simply managing addiction on the street. That means pairing compassion with accountability and ensuring treatment is always available when people are ready.
Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, the San Francisco Democratic Party, District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Jane Fonda, Senator Cory Booker, Grow SF, Abundant SF, San Francisco Apartment Association … see more here.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at io@missionlocal.com.
Election Day is on Nov. 3, 2026. You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.