San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Blame open drug dealing as overdose deaths soar
The recent jawdropping news that 441 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco last year offered a detailed account of the health issues surrounding the deadly epidemic, but the Department of Public Health report made little mention of the elephant in the room:
“That we allow open drug dealing on the street corners of the Tenderloin,” Tenderloin Housing Clinic Executive Director Randy
Shaw said. “We are all concerned about drug overdoses, but we are not doing anything about San Francisco being a place where people can indulge in drug use.”
More than half of the deaths involved fenta
nyl, a drug that can be 100 times more potent than morphine.
“Fentanyl can be manufactured all over the place, and it is easy to ship and extremely difficult to detect,” said Dr. Phillip Coffin, the health department’s director of substance use research. “It is so much less expensive than other drugs, so it winds up commanding the market.”
In San Francisco, dealing fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin has become an openair business, largely supplied and run by organized gangs that have turned the Tenderloin into a superstore for drugs.
Some of the drug crews working the corners, like the Honduran gang busted by federal agents last year, commute into the city from Oakland on BART or in carpools.
But in a Sept. 1 posting on Twitter, the Tenderloin Police Station reported its officers were approaching 1,000 arrests for drug dealing since August 2019. In one recent bust, police seized $2,000 and more than 70 grams of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl. Of the six people arrested, two were fugitives in other drug cases.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who took office in January and was elected on a platform of restorative justice over imprisonment, said, “Drug sales cases remain one of our largest categories of felony cases and also the highest rate of felony rebookings of any crime. But we need better, more effective approaches to stop the cycle at the outset and to save lives.”
Police who work the street often cite the lack of serious jail time and the release of offenders with multiple cases pending as a key reason the open dealing flourishes.
One example of the revolving door is in an Aug. 25 Twitter posting on the Tenderloin Station account:
“Last night, officers had a fentanyl dealer under surveillance. After watching him do a drug deal, he was arrested. 8+ plus grams of fentanyl, digital scale; $284 seized from him. His third arrest in 90 days for dealing fentanyl at this same location.”
Boudin, however, says streetcorner arrests aren’t the answer.
“Today’s problems are the result of a failed approach in the war on drugs that we will not replicate. Law enforcement should focus on drug suppliers, rather than on the smallscale, streetlevel sellers,” he said. “We also must create specialty courts for those sellers who are, in fact, themselves victims of human trafficking.”
Meanwhile, the dealing and the deaths continue.
Dr. Coffin is a specialist in addiction medicine, but he doesn’t claim to be an expert in public safety.
Coffin does, however, have a prediction on where where San Francisco is headed when it comes to overdose deaths.
“It’s going to get a lot worse.”
“Law enforcement should focus on drug suppliers, rather than on the smallscale, streetlevel sellers.”
Say what? In a move that may stun many people, the Oakland police union has come out in support of a November ballot measure to strengthen the independent, citizen Oakland Police Commission, which has been a leading voice for defunding the department, reducing the use of force and greater
Chesa Boudin, S.F. district attorney
disciplining of officers accused of misconduct.
“I can understand why people might be surprised, ” Oakland Police Officers Association President Barry Donelan said.
After all, the commission and the police union have been at odds over just about every major issue. So why support a measure that would give the commission even more power?
“The thinking is that instead of going back and forth about this and that with the commission, let’s give them everything they need,” Donelan said. “Then there will be no more excuses, and we can get on with the real business of fighting crime and protecting the real people who are affected by it.”
As unlikely an ally as the Oakland officers association may appear to be, Police Commission Chair Regina Jackson said the members are glad to have the cops’ backing.
“Barry Donelan’s voice has been steadfast inside the OPOA,” Jackson said. “Having met with him and discussed our collective responsibilities to the city of Oakland, I am delighted with OPOA’s decision to support Measure S1.”
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGOTV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 4157778815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle. com. Twitter: @philmatier