The fact is widely known how liberal Democrat-controlled cities always have the most amount of worries and woes. These cities encourage their citizens to live and let live. If you see something you don’t like or approve of just look the other way. It’s easy. Peace, love, and all of that.
If you happen to be a heroin junkie or a meth-head in any of these major cities, not to worry, the governments got your back. You can go to any of the special clinics in town for a new needle. They’ll even watch you inject your drug of choice to make sure you didn’t get a hold of a bad batch so you don’t die.
As COVID-19 continues traveling its deadly trail, and as the U.S. death toll continues to escalate, the virus has now earned the prestigious honor of being the number one cause of death in America. Except for one lone city. and that city is San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
In this liberal infused city, known for its riots and chaos, drug overdoses now outnumber deaths from the coronavirus. Here is what may have contributed to the cause.
California’s lockdown was the result of dwindling intensive care capacity. The state used falling below 15% of bed capacity as the measure for shutting down certain areas of the state. These measures include strict closures for businesses and a ban on gathering with anyone outside of your own household.
As a result of California’s decision, in an expensive and highly overrated state, to begin with, personal misery and economic hardships are taking their tolls in a much more severe and devastating manner than by COVID-19.
Here is where the City by the Bay’s numbers become astounding. Since the beginning of the year, 173 of the cities residents have died from COVID-19. During this same period of time, 621 of them have died from self-inflicted drug overdoses. San Francisco may have free drug clinics and clean needles, but getting addicts to use them is a different story altogether.
But it gets worse. Also since the start of the year, medics have administered over 3,000 shots of Narcan to overdose victims. Narcan is the only known remedy for bringing those on the brink of death from opioid overdoses back to life so they can do it all over again.
As reported by the Associated Press, “The data reflects the number of times people report using Narcan to the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, a city-funded program that coordinates San Francisco’s response to overdose or return to refill their supply.” Take note of, “or return to refill their supply.”
Even with these high numbers, it’s probably a major undercount since the overdoses are largely self-reported, according to officials at the DOPE Project.
San Francisco’s drug problem cannot be solely contributed to the COVID-19 lockdown. Opiate fentanyl which averages out at being 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, has gained widespread popularity throughout the community. There has been a significant increase since 2017 when drug deaths totaled only 222. They have more than tripled.
Many of the overdose deaths took place in government-paid hotel rooms for the homeless, and in low-incoming housing projects by people who couldn’t work, or wouldn’t work, preferring instead to live off of their free handouts.
Besides these places, the AP said people have been dying on sidewalks, in alleyways, and on park benches. The city said that the disruption in emergency services due to COVID-19 has had lots to do with the rising numbers. They also in part contributed the rise to the free drug clinics not being able to function normally.
But. What the city failed to mention is how this significant rise has been coming on for some time now. This was happening pre-pandemic. But considering how 49% of all small businesses in San Francisco were forced to shutter their doors, the lockdown is certainly making matters far worse.
The city’s economy has taken one of the hardest falls in the nation causing more and more of its residents to give up all hope of ever getting through this virus mess. What they may have once had is gone. Maybe forever.
“Here. Take a hit of this. It’ll make you feel better.” See how all of this works.
