For the City by the Bay, 2023 was not a good year. Homelessness, crime, and illegal immigration have been hard on San Francisco. Now the city has set a new record – the most overdose deaths in San Francisco’s history.
The Drug Overdose Threat
From January 1 through November 30, San Francisco had 752 people die from accidental overdose. This horrible trend has been growing exponentially over the past few years, and the next highest number on record was 2020’s 621 deaths. Compare that to 441 in 2019 and 259 in 2018, and it’s clear to see the war on drugs is not going so well. In fact, “San Francisco lost an average of about two people a day to drugs in 2020,” Los Angeles Times reported.
Data shows that more than 80% of overdoses in SF involved fentanyl. This drug, which is 100 times more potent than morphine, has flooded American cities and suburbs, and a lot of it is coming across the border by smugglers. Although confiscations of less potent drugs like marijuana are down, fentanyl seizures “are up significantly: 480 percent higher at the southern border in fiscal year (FY) 2023 compared to FY 2020,” according to National Immigration Forum.
Just in November, San Diego Sector Border agents seized more than $3.5 million in fentanyl during one stop in California where a 24-year-old woman had 62 bundles of pills concealed inside her car door panel and seats. During 2023, Border Patrol and the Office of Field Operations seized 27,000 pounds of the drug while 14,700 pounds were taken in 2022 and just 4,800 in 2020.
Fentanyl overdose deaths are increasing each year. In 2022, 73,654 people died in the US, which is more than double the number from 2019. And now there’s a new drug, Xylazine, also known as “tranq,” which is becoming a concern. This flesh-rotting drug has already been linked to 30 overdose deaths in San Francisco in 2023 alone.
The San Francisco Chronicle charted the areas with the highest drug overdose death rate, including fentanyl, tracking the rate of overdose deaths per 100,000 residents and the share of those deaths that involved synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl. From May 2022 to April 2023, San Francisco County had a rate of 79.9 with 72% of those deaths related to fentanyl.
New York City, struggling with a mass influx of migrants, also has a serious overdose crisis. In 2022, 3,026 such deaths were recorded, the highest total since this was first tracked in 2000.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that 28 states are expected to see a rise in overdose deaths from 2022 to 2023, including Alabama, California, New York, Oregon, and Texas. Besides the border disaster, where overburdened agents try to corral illegal border crossers and seize illegal drugs, another issue contributing to the problem is homelessness. In the City by the Bay, nearly 30% of those who overdosed were homeless. These twin problems, often related to one another, are clearly threatening to overwhelm one of America's great cities.
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