Tenderloin

SF Officers Have Seized More Drugs So Far This Year Than All of 2021: Police

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The crackdown on drug dealers in San Francisco appears to be getting results.

Police Chief Bill Scott announced Wednesday that record amounts of fentanyl have been taken off the streets and the DA is vowing to prosecute more cases.

“Year-to-date, we have seized 75,000 gross grams of narcotics. Of that 48,900 are of fentanyl,” said Scott.

At the police commission meeting, he said officers have already seized more drugs this year, than in all of last year and much of it in the Tenderloin.

A bust over the weekend netted nearly 8 pounds of fentanyl. Former tenderloin addict, now community activist, Tom Wolfe believes things are beginning to change.

“This is fentanyl, which is 10 times stronger than heroin and it is responsible for overdose deaths at the rate of two per day,” he said. “So we’re at a crisis point now in San Francisco. Something needs to be done and from what I’ve been seen, things are starting to happen.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was also aware that reducing the demand for drugs is essential.

“I hope that is due to the fact that they now feel as thought that our office will do its job to hold offenders accountable,” she said. “We’re always struggling to find treatment beds, certainly for those who need inpatient treatment. So it’s something we’re going to have to work on to improve, especially with the programs that have a track record of success.”

State Attorney General Robert Bonta announced Wednesday the seizure of four million fentanyl pills and 900 pounds of powder in just the past 16 months statewide.

Craig Johnson is the program director at the TRP Academy, a new abstinence-based community in San Francisco.

“Overall, the view is that people have a right to do what they want to do and when you’re an addict, you are not in control of yourself like that,” he said. “Sometimes, you need some help.”

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