In the six weeks since the state joined the crackdown on fentanyl in and around San Francisco’s troubled Tenderloin district, state law enforcement officers have seized more than nine pounds of the deadly opioid, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Thursday.
The partnership, launched May 1, among the San Francisco police, California Highway Patrol and California State Guard, took aim at the heart of the city’s drug crisis where rampant drug-dealing has led to hundreds of deadly overdoses.
In a news release trumpeting the effort, Newsom’s office said the operation has already seized enough of the powerful drug to kill the entire population of San Francisco nearly three times over. But is that really the case?
Medical experts contacted by the Bay Area News Group say it’s unlikely or at least misleading.
The governor’s officer defined a lethal dose of fentanyl as 2 milligrams, and said the confiscated haul was enough to kill 2.1 million people. But experts say, for that to happen, everyone who took the seized fentanyl would have to have a low tolerance to the drug, which is only really common in new or infrequent users.
Rachel Sussman, who practices primary care and addiction medicine at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose, said statements claiming that millions could die from seized fentanyl are “a little bit of fear mongering.”
“The main reason that’s a little bit misleading is that most of the people who use fentanyl are doing so chronically, and so … their fatal dose is typically quite a bit higher,” she said.
Statewide last year, law enforcement seized 28,765 pounds of fentanyl in California, which Newsom’s office back then touted in a similar news release as enough fentanyl to kill all of North America twice.
In San Francisco so far this year, San Francisco Police say that officers working in the Tenderloin have seized 61.5 kilograms — or about 135 pounds — of fentanyl.
With its image being battered after years of tolerance to open-air drug markets, San Francisco is under increasing pressure to address a drug crisis on its streets.
The city had 620 accidental fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2022, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. A Bay Area News Group analysis in 2022 revealed that one-fifth of youth deaths across California are related to the drug.
“I’m proud of the CHP and CalGuard’s lifesaving efforts to shut down the Tenderloin’s poison pipeline and hold drug traffickers accountable,” Newsom said in Thursday’s release. “These early results show promise and serve as a call to action: we must do more to clean up San Francisco’s streets, help those struggling with substance use, and eradicate fentanyl from our neighborhoods.”
Other cities have been clamoring for more support from the state in handling the fentanyl crisis locally. In April, shortly before California’s fentanyl-fighting partnership with San Francisco launched, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told the Bay Area News Group that he would welcome help from Sacramento in the city’s fight against fentanyl.
“We are really understaffed,” Mahan said. “So do we need more help there? Yes.”
Ninety-six San Jose deaths were attributed to accidental fentanyl overdoses in 2022, according to data from the Santa Clara County Coroner dashboard.
According to the release, the CHP also seized more than 957 grams of methamphetamine, 319 grams of cocaine and 31 grams of heroin since the start of the program. The CHP has made 92 felony and misdemeanor arrests with many of the charges coming from fentanyl possession, illegal gun possession, driving under the influence and domestic violence.
San Jose made national waves earlier this year, when it was revealed that a longtime executive director with the San Jose Police Officers Association was charged with trafficking fentanyl from her office and work computer for more than 7 years.
Political experts say that Newsom’s focus on seizing fentanyl is smart politics given the growing awareness around the dangers fentanyl poses.
“This is obviously going to be an ongoing issue, and he’s getting ahead of it,” said veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick. “It’s not only good policy, it’s good politics.”
Sussman said that seizing fentanyl, though important, may not make a big difference in the fight against fentanyl given how cheap and easy the drug is to make.
“I think it’s such a cheap substance that the market is going to replace it,” she said. “We are probably not going to ultimately make progress until we have control over the demand side, through treatment.”
Staff writer Gabriel Greschler contributed to this report.