Proposition F asks voters whether the city should be allowed to screen single adult welfare recipients for drug dependency and require those identified as suffering from substance use disorder to enter treatment to continue receiving cash assistance through the County Adult Assistance Program.
Author Archives: Sylvie Sturm
Sylvie Sturm is an award-winning journalist with 25 years of experience in print, primarily writing and editing for community newspapers in Canada. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2014, she has focused on audio journalism and currently contributes to the “Civic” podcast from the San Francisco Public Press. She also mentors science writers at University of California, San Francisco in print and podcasting, and has taught media at San Francisco State University.
Posted inCity Hall, Health, Homelessness, Overdose Crisis
2023 Is San Francisco’s Deadliest Year on Record for Drug Overdoses
Last Thursday San Francisco’s chief medical examiner released the city’s updated overdose death count — 752 so far — making 2023 the worst year on record for drug-related fatalities. One-third of those people were listed as having no fixed address. Later that day, a crowd gathered at Civic Center Plaza to remember more than 420 who died in the city while experiencing homelessness this year.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Health, Overdose Crisis
SF Students, SRO Residents Train to Reverse Drug Overdoses
Experts in overdose prevention say many teen and adult lives could be saved if more people know how to identify and respond to overdoses. In San Francisco, an array of programs are providing overdose response training to teenagers, college and medical-school students, and residents in neighborhoods that have a high rate of overdose deaths.
Posted inCalifornia, Coercive Control, Domestic Violence, Government & Politics, Law & Justice
Children Violently Removed by Court Order Celebrate New California Bill Prohibiting Practice
Two children who were violently removed from their grandmother’s Santa Cruz home in October 2022 and placed into a court-ordered program to recant parental abuse allegations celebrated a victory last month when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill prohibiting such programs.
On Oct. 13, Maya, 16, and Sebastian Laing, 12, and their allies celebrated the passage of Senate Bill 331, aka Piqui’s Law, which prohibits California family court judges from forcing kids into so-called reunification camps and ensures that judges and those serving as expert witnesses undergo critical training on domestic violence and child custody.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, City Hall, Health, Overdose Crisis
City Officials Lack Urgency to Prevent Overdose Deaths, Say Safe Consumption Proponents
Several weeks after a crucial legal hurdle blocking safe consumption sites in San Francisco was seemingly resolved, proponents said they were dismayed that city leaders and public health officials were still not greenlighting centers that could reduce deaths related to drug use.
Overdose deaths have reached 620 this year — on track to have the highest annual tally since counting began, with fentanyl causing the vast majority of fatalities, according to the chief medical examiner’s latest report.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Health, Law & Justice, Overdose Crisis
DA’s Opposition to Drug Diversion Programs Undermines Public Safety, Say Legal Advocates
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has criticized and diminished the use of diversion programs that offer criminal defendants accused of selling drugs rehabilitation, counseling and training rather than jail sentences.
Since taking office 15 months ago, Jenkins has reduced the number of referrals to the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project by 70%, according to its CEO David Mauroff.
And as San Francisco’s rate of overdose fatalities reaches more than two deaths a day, Jenkins is pushing for defendants accused of selling drugs to remain in jail. But some legal experts say that’s a bad strategy both for the defendants and for public safety.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Health, Law & Justice, Overdose Crisis
Drug Crackdown Has Sparked Violent Turf Warfare in Central San Francisco, Supervisor Says
A drug crackdown in the Tenderloin and South of Market has resulted in more than 600 arrests, with authorities seizing more than 200 pounds of fentanyl since the initiative launched in May, Mayor London Breed said.
But the coordinated effort, involving city and state law enforcement agents, appears to be leading to violent clashes, said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the Tenderloin. “They’re poking a hornet’s nest,” he said in an interview.
Posted inLaw & Justice, Public Safety
Anonymous Posters Singling Out Judges for Leniency in Drug Cases Earn Condemnation From Defense Lawyers
An anonymous poster campaign calling out judges who dropped charges against people accused of selling fentanyl is getting strong pushback from San Francisco legal professionals.
“This is just wildly inappropriate,” said Kirk Jenkins, Senior Counsel at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. “You could cause violence against judges.”
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Health, Homelessness, Housing, Overdose Crisis, Social Services
SF ‘Failing’ on Housing as Overdose Solution, Health Expert Says
Sarah Evans has spent decades advancing drug overdose prevention initiatives around the world. As a division director for Open Society Foundations — a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros — Evans promotes one surefire way to help abate San Francisco’s homelessness and fatal overdose crisis: housing.
“The way that people get off the street is by getting into housing, where people can get support and stay there even while they are continuing to struggle with substance use disorders of all kinds and mental health issues,” said Evans, who leads the organization’s drug policy programs globally. “It literally is the only way.”
San Francisco isn’t doing enough to meet this housing need, according to health experts.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, City Hall, Health, History, Homelessness, Overdose Crisis, Social Services
San Francisco’s Fatal Overdose Crisis Was Decades in the Making
As San Francisco continues to search for solutions, our team at “Civic” is exploring the origins of the city’s opioid overdose crisis, what has been done to help and what might be making things worse. After six months of research involving hundreds of studies, reports and archival news clippings, and three dozen interviews with people with lived experience and professional expertise in homelessness, addiction, medicine, criminal justice, housing, social work, street outreach, business, education, harm reduction, policymaking and advocacy, we’re launching the series, “San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis.”
Over six episodes, the series will explore what influenced rampant opioid addiction and its connection to homelessness, the 150-year history of policing and prosecuting drugs in San Francisco, the long battle to open a safe consumption site in the city, and grassroots efforts to stem the tide of drug-related fatalities.