Saturday, December 18, 2021
Two overdose deaths a day
San Francisco declares a drug emergency
Millions of addicts, one hundred thousand deaths: the USA has been in a serious opioid crisis for years. Some cities like San Francisco are particularly hard hit. At least two people die there every day from an overdose. The mayor is now pulling the rip cord.
In view of the no longer controllable drug abuse and the death toll caused by it, San Francisco has declared a state of emergency for a district in the center of the US metropolis. “We lose at least two people a day to an overdose,” said official Matt Haney. The Tenderloin district is particularly affected. “This is a public health crisis that needs an urgent and decisive response.”
Tenderloin is very close to popular tourist spots such as Union Square. For some years now, drug abuse has not only exploded there. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are mainly responsible. Last year, 711 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco, more than ever before in a twelve month period. Also this year, according to media reports, the number is likely to be in this order of magnitude.
The declaration of emergency, signed by Mayor London Breed on Friday, enables local authorities, among other things, to quickly set up emergency shelters or open psychological support centers without observing the regulations that are actually in force.
During the corona pandemic, there was apparently a massive increase in drug use in the United States. For the first time, more than 100,000 drug deaths were counted within one year. According to the US health authority CDC, around 100,300 people died as a result of an overdose between April 2020 and April 2021. That was an all-time high and an increase of 28.5 percent compared to the same period last year.