San Francisco Announces Record 806 Overdose Deaths In City In 2023
‘Over 800 people dead, and we barely get a few posts of it’
By Evan Symon, January 18, 2024 2:45 am
New data from the City of San Francisco released on Wednesday found that 806 total drug overdoses occurred in 2023, marking the highest yearly number of overdoses ever in the city, and over 150 more than the 2022 amount of 649.
For years, San Francisco has struggled with the number of overdose deaths that occur in the city, with fentanyl becoming the leading overdose drug of choice since the 2010s. However, overdose deaths exploded as San Francisco began to decline in the late 2010s and the social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic set in during the early 2020’s. In 2020, a record of 726 overdose deaths were recorded in the city. While there was a slight dip in the next few years, with only 649 occurring in 2022, a high number of crises plaguing the city in 2023 brought about a noticeable skyward trend.
San Francisco battled the trends on both the street and the courtroom. While they were affective in having pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy chains paying record amounts to the city for their roles in the fentanyl crisis, including $24.8 million being paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals and $230 million being paid by Walgreens, it did nothing to pause the number of overdoses.
In the first three months of 2023, 200 fentanyl-related deaths were recorded, a huge jump from 142 deaths in 2022. The statistics grew worse on Wednesday when the San Francisco Department of Public Health announced that 473 people have died of accidental overdoses this year so far, with 71 coming in July alone. Of the total, 385 of the overdoses were caused by fentanyl, with the city on pace to break the 2020 record. Subsequent months showed high numbers of overdoses as well, including an August record of 84, resulting in San Francisco going well beyond the 726 overdose deaths in 2020.
According to the report by the city, the number of overdoses in the city in 2023 was 806. While city officials stressed that the number was preliminary, they had also been preparing for the worst since at least November when the old record was officially broken. Multiple city officials gave reactions to the milestone on Wednesday.
“San Francisco alone cannot solve this problem of record overdose deaths. We rely on our city and community partners, our legislators at the local, state, and federal level to join us in this moment to continue to tackle this crisis,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, in a statement on Wednesday. “Every 4 1/2 minutes, someone dies of overdose. This local and national crisis is driven by multiple factors, such as pharmaceutical marketing, poverty, limited drug-treatment options and decades of under-investment in behavioral health care.”
“We call on our legislators to make greater investments in behavioral health care, both mental health and substance-use treatment. We call on them to eliminate barriers to safe consumption sites, to access methadone and make all treatment more accessible. We can’t deliver services needed if we can’t hire and train a workforce. ”
In a post on X, Mayor London Breed added, “Our 2023 overdose numbers show that after a serious rise in ODs during the months leading up to August, we saw a 20% decrease in OD rates in the last four months. We will continue offering services, treatment, and finding ways to help people accept the care they need.”
Our 2023 overdose numbers show that after a serious rise in ODs during the months leading up to August, we saw a 20% decrease in OD rates in the last four months.
We will continue offering services, treatment, and finding ways to help people accept the care they need.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) January 17, 2024
Addiction advocates in San Francisco told the Globe on Wednesday that they feared that 2024 is going to be even worse.
“Over 800 people dead, and we barely get a few posts of it,” said Harmony Smith, who runs a support group for addicts in San Francisco, to the Globe on Wednesday. “That’s several big plane crashes worth of people. Addicts are in a bad spot and need help, but San Francisco is obviously not doing enough. Support groups are having a high turnover, not because people are leaving, but because they meet an OD death. This shouldn’t be happening. This isn’t normal. But, I guess to some in San Francisco, they are.”
January overdose figures for San Francisco are due to come out in early February.
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“San Francisco alone cannot solve this problem of record overdose deaths.”
NOT a “problem,” AFAIC; rather, a self-eradicating scourge. I celebrate each one gone by the actions of his/her own hands. Beer’s on me. I do wish they’d find other places to do it, but that’s just details.
Liars can figure but figures don’t lie.
London can spin this however she wants.
Keep up the good work Evan.
Nothing to worry about because San Francisco has diversity!!
DemocRATS don’t give a damn about the deaths they create by kissing Chicom ass at every opportunity, and keeping an open border as partners of Mexican cartels. They act with impunity and no one holds them accountable.
No doubt Mayor London Breed and the rest of the Marxist Democrat cabal that controls SF aren’t shedding any tears over these overdose deaths? They probably dismiss those deaths as collateral damage in the lucrative drug trade operations that the criminal Democrat mafia allows to exist and most likely benefits from?
San Francisco’s mass poisoning has killed more people this year than all the mass shootings in America all put together.
It’s our AR-15s that are the problem, though.
This is just crazy and it remains completely unacceptable. Apparently this is California “leadership’s” plan for ending homelessness.
This started under Gavin Newsom’s “leadership” and has accelerated under the “leadership” of drug use advocates like the idiotic Scott Weiner and the ineffective figurehead called London Breed….
This is what happens when “community organizers” are elected as public policy officials…
You reap what you’ve sown, San Francisco…