3 found dead in S.F. likely from overdoses
Fentanyl-laced narcotics are suspected in Haight
The suspected drug-overdose deaths of three men whose bodies were found Thursday morning in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood prompted warnings from city health officials that other users of illicit opioids may be in danger from laced narcotics.
The city medical examiner’s office was investigating the deaths of the three men, who were found at 4:35 a.m. on the 1500 block of Page Street by a security guard from the Urban School of San Francisco, a high school on that block, officials said.
Authorities said neither foul play nor cold weather were suspected causes, and police reported finding evidence of intravenous drug use. The men, who did not live in the neighborhood, were not immediately identified, said Officer Robert Rueca, a city police spokesman.
The circumstances of the deaths raised alarm about the possibility of fentanyl poisoning, city
health officials said. The synthetic-opioid pain reliever, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, has been linked to tens of thousands of U.S. overdose deaths in recent years, according to federal data, and is often used in counterfeit medication and street drugs.
“We do not have confirmation at this time of the cause of death, but we are concerned about the possibility of fentanyl poisoning,” said Rachael Kagan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health.
Health officials were contacting local care providers and putting the word out to “the drug-user community” to make sure they are aware of the danger, Kagan said.
“People who buy drugs on the street are at risk of purchasing drugs contaminated by fentanyl, which is a very strong opioid, much more potent than heroin,” said Dr. Tomas Aragon, San Francisco’s health officer. “It is essential for their safety to carry naloxone in case of overdose. It is a matter of life and death.”
Even microscopic amounts of fentanyl in drugs like heroin can cause death, said Richard Rawson, a professor emeritus at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
“It’s a real Russian roulette situation,” Rawson said. “Many of these overdose deaths are people found with needles still in their arm because these deaths happen so quickly. As they inject the drug, it just knocks them out and they can’t be revived.”
Heroin sold on the street often contains some amount of fentanyl, and many users don’t realize how potent the drug is, which leads to misuse, Rawson said.
City health officials said they were seeing a rising death rate from fentanyl. In 2016, 22 people in San Francisco fatally overdosed, a 50 percent increase compared to the year before. In all, 105 people died from opioid-related overdoses in the city in 2016.
In October 2015, a person died and three others were treated at hospitals in San Francisco after taking counterfeit Xanax pills laced with fentanyl. In another incident last May, a person died and three others were hospitalized after smoking crack cocaine that contained fentanyl.
The deaths come as San Francisco, in a bid to prevent overdoses and the spread of diseases, prepares to open safeinjection sites for drug users July 1. Needle access sites in the city offer fentanyl test strips, allowing users to check the content of drugs before consumption.
Supervisor London Breed tweeted Thursday that she will hold an emergency community meeting Saturday at Park Police Station “in light of the recent tragic events in the Upper Haight/Panhandle.” Last week, two men were shot in the area, one fatally, by a suspect who then allegedly carjacked a driver before he was later caught.
Urban School leaders wrote a message to parents Thursday morning addressing the men’s deaths.
“There is no evidence of foul play and there were no guns or knives on the scene,” Mark Salkind, the head of the school, which remained open, said in the message. “The police assure us there is no danger to our students or faculty and staff. The medical examiner will handle the case from this point.”
Randall Ekorn, 37, who is homeless and often sleeps on the street in the neighborhood, said two of the victims found Thursday were friends that he’s known for 15 years.
“That’s two of my best friends. They’re local street kids around here,” Ekorn said. “They were very, very good people. I suppose maybe they just ran out of gas or I guess something funny happened there.”
Ekorn said he learned his friends had died when police officers shook him awake at about 5 a.m. near the intersection of Haight Street and Masonic Avenue and gave him the news.
“We drink beer here every morning,” Ekorn said. “Out here in the streets, we kind of stick up for each other and look out for each other. We are like a pack of Care Bears.”
Ekorn and Max Rosenberg, 65, sat on cardboard boxes outside Love on Haight, the tie-dye clothing boutique at Haight and Masonic, occupying the same corner the two have lived on for decades and often shared with their deceased friends.
“Nothing blows my mind in this city,” Rosenberg said, somberly.
Ekorn said he planned to ask around to see if anyone knew exactly what had happened while he was asleep.
“I just didn’t want to hear that this morning,” Ekorn said. “‘Your family loves you’ — that’s what I want to say to them.”