Overdoses caused 699 deaths in 2020 in S.F.
San Francisco lost a total of 699 people to overdoses last year, a 59% rise from 2019, according to new data released Thursday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
That number is more than three times the amount of people that died of COVID19 in the city during the same period. It also represents 699 sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends and loved ones felled by an epidemic that the city has been unable to control.
“It didn’t have to happen,” sighed Kristen Marshall, director of the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, which manages the city’s overdose response. “The root of these overdose deaths in San Francisco is homelessness, poverty and racism that has been institutionalized throughout our systems of care.”
More than 40% of the deaths occurred in the Tenderloin and South of Market — neighborhoods that have long been plagued by homelessness and drug dealing. A quarter of the people who died were Black, despite the fact that Black people make up less than 6% of San Francisco’s population.
On some days, five and even six fatal overdoses were recorded. Between January and August, the latest month for which such detailed figures were provided to The Chronicle, there were only 44 days where the medical
“Had we not confiscated over (192.2 ounces) of fentanyl ... one has to think what that would have done.” Bill Scott, San Francisco police chief
examiner didn’t record a fatal overdose.
More than 70% of this year’s victims were found with the opioid fentanyl in their system. It’s an incredibly powerful drug that can kill someone with just 2 milligrams, a fraction of the lethal dose for heroin.
While experts attribute much of 2020’s surge in overdoses to the increasing presence of fentanyl, they also blame the pandemic for disrupting services like dropin centers and inperson support groups.
Many, many more people would have likely died if their peers or first responders weren’t around to shove Narcan, a lifesaving overdose reversal drug, into their thighs or up their noses. Narcan was administered by people from outreach workers to drug users themselves at least 3,400 times between January and the beginning of December, according to the DOPE Project. That compares to 2,610 times in all of 2019.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Police officers used Narcan 211 times in 2020, according to the department. That compares to 135 times in 2019.
All this occurred even though police seized more than four times the amount of fentanyl than in 2019.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of fentanyl to kill,” San Francisco Chief Bill Scott previously told The Chronicle. “Had we not confiscated over (192.2 ounces) of fentanyl ... one has to think what that would have done in terms of having even more overdoses.” Yet, the deaths continued to mount.
Supervisor Matt Haney passed legislation last year that spurred the San Francisco medical examiner to release the number of fatal overdoses every month, as opposed to once a year. That put the increasing death toll on grim display: 563 by November, 636 by December, 699 by January.
Haney hoped the increased data would spur extra urgency in addressing the epidemic. Instead, he’s frustrated that more progress hasn’t been made.
City leaders are working on several reforms: More access to medicationassisted treatment drugs, like methadone and buprenorphine. Dropin centers and safe consumption sites where people can be connected to care. More supportive housing. More Narcan.
But many of those changes are still years away.
“This should have shocked the conscience of the entire city,” Haney said of 2020’s recordbreaking number of overdose deaths. “Every single leader in our city should be working on stopping this.”