‘Public health calamity’: SF Mayor Breed asks for federal assistance with city’s drug crisis

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Mayor London Breed is asking for a federal lifeline in relation to curbing San Francisco’s ongoing drug disaster. That is taking place as town’s police division struggles with understaffing.

“My hope is we are able to associate and work collectively to deal with this essential difficulty,” Breed stated.

Breed admits San Francisco wants assist to gradual drug dealing that is taking place every single day on the streets. She simply wrote a letter to the newly appointed U.S. Legal professional for Northern California Ismail Ramsey, saying the issue is past town’s management.

“We positively need assistance. After we have a look at the police division, it’s brief staffed,” Breed stated. “Arrests — there’s an entire course of that goes into that. Having the capability to fulfill the challenges has been troublesome.”

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Breed says town wants extra and ongoing assist from the Division of Justice to each arrest and prosecute drug sellers. That is all at a time when the Fentanyl-driven overdose epidemic has introduced open-air drug dealing to a brand new degree.

The San Francisco Division of Public Well being tweeted that its avenue groups responded to greater than 2,200 911 calls final 12 months, treating overdoses and offering medical, psychological well being and medicines for habit.

In 2021, Breed declared a three-month emergency over the drug disaster within the metropolis’s Tenderloin, utilizing metropolis sources to crack down on drug dealing.

“All of the items that we have to make that efficient weren’t there. I am optimistic about future,” Breed stated.

District Legal professional Brooke Jenkins says drug dealing prosecutions are growing at her workplace however provides federal help is welcome.

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In a press release to ABC7 Information, Jenkins stated, “No single company or division is ready to deal with the disaster of drug dealing and the impacts it is having in and on our communities alone.”

“It is a public well being calamity we’ve not seen for the reason that AIDS disaster,” stated SF Supervisor Matt Dorsey.

Dorsey helps the mayor’s plea for federal assist. He says that over the past three years, 2,000 individuals have died from drug overdoses in San Francisco.

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“If we had that many San Franciscans gunned down in our avenue, no query the president of the USA and the governor would have the Nationwide Guard right here,” Dorsey stated.

Dorsey hopes a gathering with the mayor and U.S. Legal professional’s workplace can occur quickly.

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