A city in crisis: How fentanyl devastated San Francisco - BBC Newsnight

[Music] san francisco is one of the richest cities in the world but below its gleaming buildings lies a humanitarian disaster we have had you know more overdose deaths in one year than we did of covet deaths in our city every day on average two people die from a drugs overdose here in december mayor london breed called for a state of emergency in a notorious district called the tenderloin we've been told it's simply too dangerous to bring our cameras here so we are filming on our phones black market arty works for a charity called urban alchemy there is a lot of open drug use i mean it just happened literally right now right here urban alchemy aims to get drug dealers off the street and helps addicts find a way to drug services good morning good morning you okay are we about to come through and clean up okay who all want coffee let's go how you doing brother we immediately came across a street with so many people doing fentanyl it was hard to get by could i support your smoking sir fentanyl the local drug dealers had delivered the fentanyl about half an hour before we arrived some were openly taking it on the street seemingly unworried about the police there you go there you go seeing this firsthand is pretty shocking he trying to make it up there you go bro you got it bro fentanyl was developed as a pain medication it's used as a recreational drug though has exploded due to its low cost it's 100 times stronger than morphine and even a tiny quantity can kill yeah this is like this every day every day there's evidence of drug use everywhere they've got one has been used two three these are pulled out a needle as we were filming a woman approached us do you guys know where we can get any free tents at around here free tents beth and her partner jay have been in san francisco for a year so are you doing fentanyl like like today or every day every day yeah really what's it like living here uh lawless yeah in december the democrat mayor of san francisco made a spectacular u-turn on previous progressive policies she had advocated defunding the police now she was refunding them more aggressive policies on law and order it is time for it to come to an end and it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement and less tolerant of all the [ __ ] that has destroyed our city [Music] san francisco is falling apart the right-wing media in the u.s has become obsessed with san francisco the tenderloin i didn't think it would but it's actually gotten worse the city is covered in filth and homeless encampments apart to many republicans the city is a sign of everything that's wrong with the left a town ruined by liberal drug laws and a lack attitude to crime and the figurehead for that is this man democrat chaser boudin the elected district attorney for san francisco dean is a yale educated public defender who has never prosecuted a case fox news has mentioned your name more than a thousand times in written content in the last year well it sounds like you're paying more attention to fox news than i am and my sympathies for that we come together today because of that chaser boudin is a radical part of a wave of liberal da's that have been elected in cities across america he's responsible for which crimes get prosecuted his detractors say he simply doesn't prosecute enough and that he's soft on crime this is an issue we can't prosecute our way out of the history of the war on drugs tells us that we need real investments in housing in treatment on demand on mental health services on harm reduction and doubling down on a failed war on drugs is never going to solve those problems but london breed argues that the city's compassion has been mistaken for weakness we have services if you look at what we spend in san francisco per resident compared to any other major city in this country i bet there is no comparison so we're making the investments the investments alone are not going to combat the challenges that continue to exist in the city and especially in the tenderloin these two politicians are the most important in the city both democrats remember and yet they simply don't agree on how to solve san francisco's issues i was very surprised frankly to see london breed publicly call for moving more than 100 million out of the police budget into other areas of the budget and while the politicians argue about how to tackle these problems some worry that time is running out for their loved ones jackie's son corey is living on the streets of san francisco i know that he's overdosed before i've been revived with narcan so just one little mistake jackie hasn't seen or heard from corey in two months she's come to the tenderloin to try to find him those are dealers over there and i don't see him up there let's go this way i'm looking for my son today have you happened to have seen him look they've been out here for a while yeah he has been we're not having much luck but then a glimmer of hope i'm looking for my son who's out here his name is corey yeah yeah i i see corey all the time when's the last time you saw him yesterday did you see him yesterday was he here in san francisco or was he in oakland he wasn't here uh can you tell him his mom's out here looking for him next time you see him okay everything's everything's okay i just really miss him that might be him right there with the wheelchair despite our best efforts we simply can't find him corey is not blameless my son makes the choices that he does that got him into this position and he'll be the first to tell you that you know he made this mistake so while he has a part to do with it i think the dealers i think chesa boudin i think mayor london breed i think they all have a hand and it's not going well san francisco isn't short of good people trying to help back in the tenderloin arty managed to find jay and beth a new tent that's why we do what we do they'll at least be able to sleep better tonight but until someone comes up with a solution to the problems in the tenderloin it's likely to remain tough for them and thousands like them

Channel: BBC News

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Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news

Id: GWBzxr3c29s

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022