What is SF’s strategy after 400+ fentanyl overdoses in 2024? Many are asking for a drastic approach

KGO

By Luz Pena

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO, California (KGO) — Tuesday was National Fentanyl Awareness Day, highlighting the dangers of the drug that is killing thousands of people throughout the country. It’s been hard for local cities to tackle this crisis.

The fentanyl crisis is nothing new for San Francisco and the Bay Area. In 2024, over 600 people died from a drug overdose in this city, with 451 from fentanyl.

Every day, more than two people die from a drug overdose in San Francisco, and 70% of those deaths are from fentanyl.

“Someone has to finally take a stand and say that this can’t happen anymore,” said Cedric Akbar, director of forensics with Westside Community Services. “Because if this was an earthquake, this city would be cleaned up.”

On the day before National Fentanyl Awareness Day, two bodies were rolled out of a San Francisco hotel turned shelter. According to a city resident who recorded the video, three people were inside doing fentanyl, one survived.

So far, more than 100 people have died from a fentanyl overdose in this city in 2025. Many are asking for a drastic approach.

“At this point, we are still not arresting people for illicit drug use that is on the street,” said Akbar. “I believe people should be offered the help they need at the point of arrest and if they choose not to that they get arrested. Once arrested, they should have treatment inside.”

This drug is creating a statewide crisis, leading to awareness campaigns by state officials.

“It is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine,” said Dr. Shauna Simon with the California Department of Public Health. “It is also deadly and in really small doses. Amount smaller than a few grains of salt can be deadly.”

Some of San Francisco’s overdose hot spots are in Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s district.

“We have seen some improvements in the street-level drug dealing from where we were a few years ago,” said Supervisor Dorsey. “However, we are still seeing a level of public drug use and public nuisance behavior that is driven by drugs that is unacceptable.”

But what is the city doing to tackle this? Earlier this month the city of San Francisco announced the expansion of a program to offer shelter beds to drug addicts if they accept treatment.

“New policies that require our community partners who are distributing sterile syringes and needles in the community to be pairing distribution of supplies with counseling and a more proactive connection to treatment,” said Daniel Tsai, Director of the SF Department of Public Health. “We recently opened on Geary Street a new crisis stabilization center the whole goal is that if you have someone on the street that is not sick enough to be in the hospital but is clearly in distress or having mental health issues or other drug use issues, we need a place to be able to quickly bring someone off the streets to stabilize and get them plugged in into other treatment options.”

Strategies like these are giving many hope during the crisis.

“I think we are moving in the right direction,” said Supervisor Dorsey. “Is it fast enough? It isn’t, and unfortunately, we are starting to see an uptick in fentanyl related overdoses.”

The city program that offers shelter beds to drug addicts who accept treatment has the capacity for 35 beds. The goal is to expand it to 70 beds, but according to Director Tsai, San Francisco needs anywhere between 150 to 200 beds. The latest expansion of 70 beds is set to happen in the next three months.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.