Drug Overdose Deaths Skyrocket In San Francisco
San Francisco has been fighting on the front lines of the Fentanyl crisis for nearly a decade now, and while there has been some success in recent years curbing its fatality, all of that progress has seemed to disappear as drug overdose deaths skyrocketed 50% since Daniel Lurie has taken office.
Naturally, one has to wonder, are Daniel Lurie’s policies to blame? If you look at the data, it appears that way.
Prior to the election of Mayor Lurie, drug overdose deaths declined in the city for 14 consecutive months. Much of the progress during the Breed administration was largely attributed to harm reduction initiatives.
Despite the success of these programs, Lurie is scaling back or eliminating them entirely in favor of a tough on crime approach that makes for better headlines, but worsening health outcomes in vulnerable populations.
Lurie has repeatedly touted high profile arrests in the Tenderloin, Mission District, and along SoMa’s 6th street. He regularly films statements in troubled areas such as this video where he pledged to clean up the Mission District’s 16th Street Bart Plaza.
But incarceration may be the main culprit behind the increase. When addicts ingest high amounts of drugs on a daily basis, they maintain a tolerance to them. However, when this is interrupted without proper access to treatment, the tolerance of the addict lowers, and when eventually released from jail, they typically go back to ingesting the same amount they did before their incarceration–unaware of their lowered tolerance, and as a result, are more likely to die.
This isn’t news. Drug policy experts have been aware of this since the ‘90s. The problem that San Francisco appears to have with harm reduction policies appears to be that the drug addicts are more visible. San Francisco has been dealing with a public image crisis since the pandemic when tech workers fled the city, and all that remained were shuttered windows and the addicts society left behind.
Fox News and right wing media pounced at the opportunity to portray this as an example of liberals ruining “a once great American city,” as a result of prioritizing “wokeness” ahead of public safety.
The only problem was, San Francisco doesn’t have a public safety crisis. The city’s violent crime rate is among the lowest in the country, despite a handful of high profile incidents that would suggest otherwise.
Drug addiction is a disease, and being visible while ill isn’t a crime. But it’s being treated that way. It doesn’t seem like San Francisco wants to help addicts, it wants to make them invisible. Unfortunately, death has a way of doing that.
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