San Francisco had a brilliant idea to reduce the health risks posed by druggies sharing needles around San Francisco… flood the city with millions more needles… for free!

And now those same officials are surprised that it hasn’t turned out so well:

They tell us he was steaming, but San Francisco [Democrat] Mayor Gavin Newsom shouldn’t have been too surprised when The Chronicle reported that Golden Gate Park was littered with used drug syringes.

After all, his own Public Health Department spent $800,000 last year to help hand out some 2 million syringes to drug users under the city’s needle exchange program — sometimes 20 at a time.

Although Health Department officials say 2 million needles were returned, the fact is they don’t count them and can only estimate how many are coming back.

And from the looks of things, a lot of them aren’t.

Surprise, surprise. You give free needles to drug users and expect that once they’ve used them and entered their drug-induced state that they’ll be lucid enough to think, “Hey, I should really return this needle to the proper authorities now.” (To say nothing of the fact most couldn’t care less about civic responsibilities when not in a drug-induced stupor) Doh!

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who has picked up needles in the park and who co-authored the bill allowing them to be sold over the counter, said it’s up to the city to keep the parks syringe-free — either through more cleanups or tighter controls to make sure needles are returned.

“We need to come up with a better system,'’ Mirkarimi said.

Ya think? You can start by ceasing the government-funded enablement.

Another idea, this one from the Homeless Youth Coalition, is to put biohazard boxes in the park where users could drop their needles.

But as park spokeswoman Dennis noted, “Many people are completely against that route. The questions are: ‘Do we really want them in the bathrooms? What if a kid popped one open or they were vandalized?’ ”

Plus, she added, “Some people think it sends the wrong message.”

Unlike the city handing out free syringes to crackheads.

Another priceless gem of a government plan gone wrong exactly where a reasonable person would expect it to.