Moms’ bold S.F. billboard underscores fentanyl crisis

Families with children struggling with addiction or lost to overdoses are putting up a colorful billboard in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district Monday calling attention to the city’s “dirt cheap fentanyl” and arguing the officials should “close down open-air drug markets.”

It’s the latest salvo from a group that’s held protests in the nearby Tenderloin — at the center of the crisis — and is now trying to get the attention, not only of San Francisco’s elected officials, but also the tourists, office workers and visitors the city is hoping to lure back to the area.

It comes weeks after the end of Mayor London Breed’s Tenderloin emergency, meant to curb an alarming spike in overdoses in the struggling neighborhood over the past few years, many from the super-powerful opioid fentanyl.

The billboard features a glowing nighttime photo of the

Golden Gate Bridge with the message

“Famous the world over for our brains, beauty and, now, our dirtcheap fentanyl” above the span with the words “It’s time to close open-air drug markets” below, along with name and logo of the sponsor, Mothers Against Drug Deaths and its hashtag, #maddtoo.

Group co-founder Jacqui Berlinn, the Pleasanton mother of a homeless fentanyl addict who sometimes lives in the Tenderloin, said the billboard seeks to inform visitors that fentanyl has overrun the city and to pressure city leaders, including Breed and the Board of Supervisors, to take action to stop open drug sales and use.

Breed had promised to crack down on drug dealers and open-air drug use and flood the Tenderloin with police as part of the emergency, declared in mid-December. But it’s only been in the past few weeks that more police have arrived. While some residents and business owners say daytime drug use and sales have quieted, they argue that after nightfall, the open-air drug markets resume.

“We just want to discourage tourism until the city is able to get this under control.” Jacqui Berlinn, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Deaths

Berlinn's group raised $25,000 to post the billboard at the corner of Geary and Stockton streets, overlooking Union Square. It seeks to use tourism, a key to the city's economy, as leverage to force the city to take a more aggressive approach to halting open dealing and use of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

“We just want to discourage tourism until the city is able to get this under control, especially the open drug markets,” Berlinn said.

The message she wants to deliver to San Francisco visitors: “Tourists, be aware. You might come and have great clam chowder and see beautiful views but you're also going to see needles on the ground, feces on the ground, open-air drug markets and very sick addicts.”

Berlinn criticized Breed's recent tourism-promoting trip to Europe and the end of her declared state of emergency in the Tenderloin.

The police have said they are trying to address drug dealing but are understaffed. Breed has touted her push to open more housing for the homeless and more beds for addiction and mental health treatment over the past few years, including opening a linkage center in U.N. Plaza to direct people on the streets to services.

Breed said reviving San Francisco's struggling tourism sector is vital to maintaining the city's fiscal health and that without a robust budget, the city can't pay for expensive programs to help those struggling with addiction. Before the pandemic, the city filled hotels, restaurants and its convention center with tourists from around the country and the globe.

But Berlinn argues that tourists “should probably visit another city, not San Francisco, right now because San Francisco should still be in a state of emergency.”

Mothers Against Drug Deaths is raising money, Berlinn said, for a possible international billboard campaign spreading that message.

While the billboard targets tourists, Berlinn said the group of about 200 members is trying to get the city to shut down open fentanyl dealing and the tolerance toward the drug's open sale and use, which she said is the real reason San Francisco's economy is suffering.

She expects people to ask about whether the billboard and campaign will hurt legitimate businesses in San Francisco, who are not responsible for the crisis.

“No, the open-air drug markets are what's hurting the economy in San Francisco,” she argued.

When Breed decided not to continue the emergency, she acknowledged that the state of the Tenderloin is “not what it should be, we know, but it's going to get better as we continue

the pressure.” She added that her “goal is to improve the conditions, but most of all to improve safety for the people who live there and work there.”

Berlinn wants to keep up the pressure and said the group realizes the boldness of the billboard and its message.

“You could say we're feeling

desperate,” she said. “That's why we're doing this campaign.”

The billboard will be up for a month.

Mothers Against Drug Deaths A billboard bearing this image will overlook Union Square starting Monday to get the attention of city officials.