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San Francisco has seen nearly three times as many people die from drug overdoses as from coronavirus last year, a staggering data point that highlights the city’s dire drug epidemic fueled by the powerful pain reliever fentanyl.
A record 699 people died from overdoses from January through December in 2020, according to a new report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. That number may seem surprising in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic when San Francisco closed schools and businesses to prevent deaths. In SF, 235 people died from complications from the coronavirus in 2020.
The city’s drug crisis is worsening because fentanyl, which may be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, has flooded the city’s drug supply, the newspaper said. Additionally, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted city services like housing and treatment, and left many people who rely on others to help save them in overdoses to use on their own.
Kristen Marshall is the project manager for the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project (DOPE Project), a city-funded program that coordinates San Francisco’s response to overdoses. Marshall said fentanyl has used amplified drug overdoses in recent years. In 2019, 441 people died of overdoses – a 70% increase from 2018. Today, the pandemic has pushed overdoses to an all-time high.
“The only golden rule of overuse prevention is to try not to use alone, and the shelter-in-place order says to protect yourself, you have to isolate yourself,” she said. . “It’s exactly the opposite. People at high risk isolated themselves and that increased the risk. The chaos put people at greater risk. The worst months were in the height of summer, when it was. most chaotic for this community. “
The DOPE project also saw an increase in the number of overdoses prevented by Narcan, a drug commonly sprayed into the nose to reverse an opioid overdose. This year, the project recorded 3,470 cancellations, compared to 2,610 last year.
Marshall noted that their numbers only capture 20% to 30% of the overdoses that Narcan averted.
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Of the 2020 overdose deaths reported by the city, 26% occurred in Tenderloin, an area with high rates of drug trafficking.
The San Francisco Police Department’s Tenderloin post said in its 2020 report posted on Twitter that officers made 2,219 arrests in 2020, including 600 for drug trafficking, and removed 18.1 kilograms of narcotics from the area.
The interior mission recorded the second highest number of overdose deaths, with 16% of deaths, according to the medical examiner’s report.
The data also shows that 76% of overdose deaths were in men and 79% had a fixed address. More than 40% of those who died lived either in the Tenderloin or in the neighboring SoMa, two neighborhoods known for its subsidized individual apartment buildings and its services and organizations dedicated to helping the needy.
“The volume of these types of deaths has increased – particularly in 2020 – over the past two years,” Dr. Luke Rodda, the bureau’s chief toxicologist, said in an interview with KTVU. “Everyone is someone’s loved one.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on January 15 at 10 a.m. after receiving additional information from Project DOPE.
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