Deaths and Desperate Solutions: Echoes of America's Overdose Epidemic

In the surroundings res of that place, the problem is evident: dozens of people crowd on the sidewalk , in tents, under cardboard or outdoors, with visible signs of drug abuse, in the heart of a city where in 2020 more than twice as many people died from overdoses than from covid – 17.

“Last year, people were isolated, and if you have a drug problem and are isolated, the problem worsens,” says Sam Quinones, a freelance journalist and author of several books on drug abuse, in an interview with Efe. opioid epidemic in the US, including “The Least of Us,” which was published in November.

Using illegal drugs under supervision

The main obstacle for the center of safe injections that the Ayunt will create San Francisco’s recommendation, which can be used to use illegal drugs under the supervision of trained personnel and with clean syringes, is against federal and California law, but even so, the city believes that it can no longer .

In San Francisco, a city that does not reach the 900, 000 inhabitants, die every day of average more than two people per overdose , according to figures compiled by the local press, of which more than 70% die from the consumption of fentanyl , a synthetic opiate 50 times more potent than heroin and deadly even in the smallest doses.

“What is happening now has never happened before. Fentanyl is made with chemicals in Mexico. They don’t need crops or rain or anything. And from there it crosses the border and is distributed in the US through networks that reach absolutely every corner of the country, from the cities to the countryside ”, says Quinones.

Quinones highlights that, despite being alarming, this figure is even below the real one , since it is very difficult to determine all deaths from this cause, especially in small and rural counties with which the epidemic is raging and with little resources to carry out forensic toxicology examinations.

According to their estimates, the actual death toll from overdose is between a 20% and a 30% higher than the official ones.

A central neighborhood epicenter of drugs

In San Francisco, the futur o public injection space is located in the neighborhood of the Tenderloin , which has been the epicenter of drugs and the homeless for years, despite being in the nerve center of the city.

Just one block from the old second-hand clothing store that the mayor has chosen for her project, on Leavenworth Street, a young man lies on his side on the ground in the middle of the sidewalk in broad daylight , with the appearance of being conscious, but not moving. Passersby avoid him by going down to the road or crossing the street, without anyone approaching him in the more than ten minutes in which Efe remains in the place.

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