Every 10 hours, one person died due to drug-related overdose, in San Francisco this year: Report

A report by the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, on Friday (April 28) found that drug-related deaths surged by 41 per cent in the United States’ city of San Francisco, California in the first quarter of this year. This rise also amounts to one person dying of an accidental overdose every 10 hours, the report noted. This comes as the US is dealing with a fentanyl crisis with many deaths reported due to this particular drug overdose. 

In the last three months, the city witnessed the death of a total of 200 people, as opposed to 142 in the same months a year ago, said the report citing data from the city’s medical examiner. 

The spike in deaths was noted in the month of December, last year and continued till January with 82 people losing their lives, the city’s overdose fatalities were at an all-time high. Furthermore, fentanyl was detected in most of the deaths, reported The Guardian. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It is also highly possible to get addicted to fentanyl. 

Among those most affected were people living on the streets as the number of those unhoused dying of overdoses between January and March doubled when compared to a year prior, said the United Kingdom-based media outlet. Additionally, it was also found that a third of the total number of victims of overdose were Black, who only make up five per cent of the city’s population.

The spike in deaths was noted right after the city’s government had shut down a key outreach centre where the unhoused would take drugs under supervision and instead increased policing in San Francisco’s drug-plagued Tenderloin district. 

The Tenderloin Center would provide daytime shelter for the unhoused, along with housing referrals, food, addiction treatment and health services, reported The Guardian. 

Additionally, the centre had also reversed 330 opiate overdoses in the 11 months using Narcan, which is a life-saving medication used to treat an opioid overdose, said the media report citing city’s data. 

The centre which served more than 400 people daily was shut down by San Francisco Mayor, London Breed who said she had been disappointed by the low number of visitors at the centre who ultimately accepted help to get off of drugs. She also sought millions to increase police overtime with a priority on arresting drug dealers. 

This move is said to have backfired on the government as it has since led to the isolation of drug users where they are more at risk of overdose deaths, said Gary McCoy of HealthRIGHT 360, a nonprofit which ran the drug overdose prevention portion of the Tenderloin Center. 

“When people don’t have a safe place to go, when they’re using in doorways and public places and they’re afraid of getting caught and put in jail, they tend to rush and use more substance,” said McCoy. He added, “And when they rush, there’s a higher risk of overdose.”

 

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