Newsom sending National Guard, CHP to fight fentanyl crisis in San Francisco

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is sending the state’s Nationwide Guard and its Freeway Patrol to assist San Francisco struggle the trafficking of the artificial opioid fentanyl within the metropolis.

“Two truths can co-exist on the identical time: San Francisco’s violent crime fee is beneath comparably sized cities like Jacksonville and Fort Price — and there may be additionally extra we should do to handle public security issues, particularly the fentanyl disaster,” Newsom stated in a launch. 

The CalGuard and the state’s Freeway Patrol are partnering with native regulation enforcement and the District Lawyer’s Workplace in San Francisco, the governor introduced. 

“By means of this new collaborative partnership, we’re offering extra regulation enforcement assets and personnel to crack down on crime linked to the fentanyl disaster, holding the poison peddlers accountable, and rising regulation enforcement presence to enhance public security and public confidence in San Francisco,” Newsom stated.

On the governor’s route, a multiagency operation will kick off after California Freeway Patrol has recognized methods to help San Francisco police, and after the CalGuard has recognized specialist personnel and assets to “help evaluation of drug trafficking operations.” 

The discharge from the governor’s workplace stresses that “at present’s partnership is not going to search to criminalize these scuffling with substance use and as an alternative deal with holding drug suppliers and traffickers accountable.”

Fentanyl trafficking and opioid-related deaths have been famous as a rising concern within the U.S. — President Biden known as for motion on the difficulty in his State of the Union deal with earlier this 12 months.

San Francisco has seen an “alarming rise” in deaths linked to fentanyl, “with a greater than 40% soar in overdose deaths from January by March of this 12 months alone,” the governor’s workplace stated.