San Francisco is experiencing a surge in accidental drug overdoses this year with the city on pace to have the highest overdose mortality rate compared to the last three years.
Preliminary data from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shows that 66 people died due to accidental overdoses last month alone, marking the highest rate of overdoses since 2020.
San Francisco has witnessed at least 268 fatal overdoses through April of this year, which is more than the total recorded in the first four months of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Recent estimates indicate that the city is likely to record up to 795 overdose deaths this year, a significant increase from the 2020 death toll of 725.
San Francisco prevailed in legal action against three pharmaceutical companies over their alleged roles in the crisis, resulting in multi-million dollar settlements. Moreover, Walgreens and CVS have agreed to pay almost $11 billion to multiple states, including California, over the next 15 years as part of their settlement agreements. That money was supposed to “bring billions of additional dollars to communities that are desperate for funds to combat the epidemic” of opioid addiction but there’s been no indication of that happening.
Governor Gavin Newsom recently deployed the California Highway Patrol and California National Guard in support of San Francisco’s efforts to curb open-air drug markets and as of this writing, there have been no boots on the ground. D5 Supervisor Dean Preston and others have criticized the move as a “publicity stunt.”