How San Francisco is Responding to its Overdose Epidemic

More than 344 people died from accidental overdoses in San Francisco between January and June this year, according to the city’s chief medical examiner. Most of these overdoses involved fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that acts more quickly than heroin and is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Fentanyl also caused the majority of 2020’s 710 overdose deaths. On Monday, San Francisco launched its Street Overdose Response Team, which provides resources and follow-up services for overdose survivors; the city also plans to allocate $13.2 million to additional overdose prevention efforts. We’ll talk about San Francisco’s response to the overdose crisis as well as its root causes.