Demanding City-Funded Recovery Services and Holding Drug Dealers Accountable
San Francisco has become synonymous with open-air drug markets, increasing rates of fentanyl addiction, and daily overdose deaths. One has only to visit any neighborhood in the city to see drug users slumped over on the sidewalk as their neighbors step over them, unsure how to help. Every day, somewhere in the city, two San Franciscans overdose and die, and an average of seven overdoses are reversed by first responders. The crisis is not contained within communities of users and the dealers who peddle drugs in broad daylight. In 2022, a baby overdosed on fentanyl after accidentally ingesting it in a park, and in early 2023 a house in the Sunset exploded after its occupants were cooking drugs inside.
The drug epidemic is not only a stunning failure on the part of the city to address a public health concern, but it has also decimated small businesses. Also in 2022, both the merchants associations of the Castro and Tenderloin neighborhoods threatened to stop paying their taxes if they did not see improvements in city services related to addressing homelessness and open-air drug dealing.
Our government’s failure to effectively respond to the drug crisis has led to visible suffering, violence, and addiction throughout the city. Our elected leaders have not only a moral obligation to fix this, but also a pragmatic one. The drug epidemic is intrinsically linked to homelessness, mental health, housing, and public safety. In order to see any improvement in those areas, we must address the drug crisis.
The Way it is Now
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An overdose crisis out of control
Between 2020-2022, almost twice as many San Franciscans died from drug overdoses than died of COVID. While the city responded to the COVID pandemic swiftly and effectively, keeping the death toll at a tragic but relatively low 1,088 deaths, it failed to prevent the 1,971 San Franciscans from succumbing to overdose deaths in the same time period.
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A new deadly drug
Of the 620 San Franciscans who died from drug overdoses in 2022, 73 percent died from using fentanyl. 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, fentanyl has supercharged a nationwide opioid epidemic due to its efficiency at delivering a high at a low cost in amounts that are smaller and easier to transport. Some fentanyl dealers in San Francisco are making a 700 percent profit margin off the drug.
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No Coordinated City Response
While the city has effectively saved lives through overdose reversals, the Tenderloin Linkage Center, its experimental safe consumption site, failed to connect residents to recovery services and led to increased drug dealing in the Tenderloin. The Department of Public Health’s current goal is to reduce overdose deaths by 15 percent citywide by 2025. We believe that goal is, frankly, pathetic compared to the scale of the crisis.
The Future We Want to See
End Open-Air Drug Markets
We call on our elected leaders to close all open-air drug markets in San Francisco by the end of 2023. No one should be exposed to the negative externalities of public drug dealing and use.
City-Sponsored Recovery Programs
City departments need to work cross-functionally to make recovery the goal. Programs should be abundant, easy to access, and effectively held to goals and standards.
Hold Drug Dealers Accountable
Local law enforcement must prevent drug dealers from preying upon recovering users and creating new user by arresting and prosecuting dealers. The city should coordinate with the state and federal authorities to address cartels bringing drugs to the city.
