SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Drug overdoses have killed a record 621 people so far this year in San Francisco, a staggering 173 deaths so far in the city caused by Covid-19.
The crisis, provoked by the powerful painkiller fentanyl, could have been worse if the hell hadn’t been used nearly 1,000,000 times to save someone from the thorns of death in January to early November, the San Francisco Chronicle says.
People use Narkan in the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, a city-funded program that coordinates San Francisco’s response to overdoses or reflects statistics that replenish their supply. Dope project officials said that since the numbers are in the self-report, they are probably a big under-calculation.
Last year, 441 people died from drug overdoses – a 70% increase from 2018 – and 2,610 potential overdoses were prevented by Narkan, a drug commonly sprayed into the nose to reverse an opioid overdose, according to the city’s medical examiner The Fis and Dr. . Dope Project.
The crisis is intensifying as fentanyl, which may be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, has flooded the city’s drug supply. Moreover, coronavirus epidemics have disrupted city services such as housing and treatment, and there are many left who rely on others to help save them if they are overused.
With about 40% of deaths in the Tenderloin and South market neighborhoods near downtown, city figures show the epidemic has touched every part of the city. Many use it in low-income apartment building and in hotel rooms funded by the city for the homeless. Others died on sidewalks, on alleys and parks around the city.
