[ad_1]
A pedestrian walks along the edge of a sidewalk to avoid tents and sleeping bags in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on April 13, 2020.
Ben Margot/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Ben Margot/AP
A pedestrian walks along the edge of a sidewalk to avoid tents and sleeping bags in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on April 13, 2020.
Ben Margot/AP
California Governor Gavin Newsom has directed the California Highway Patrol and National Guard to assist San Francisco officials in fighting the city’s fentanyl crisis.
The two agencies will partner with local police departments and the district attorney’s office to stop the trafficking of deadly synthetic opioids.
“Two truths may coexist simultaneously: San Francisco has a lower violent crime rate than larger cities such as Jacksonville and Fort Worth; We have other things to do to deal with this,” Newsom said. in a press statement on Friday.
The four agencies are expected to “crack down” on fentanyl-related crime and increase law enforcement’s presence in the public arena. It vowed not to target it, instead focusing on drug suppliers and traffickers.
CHP will assist local police in cracking down on drug trafficking in key areas of the city, including the Tenderloin district, where the Mayor of London Breed declared a state of emergency in December 2021 due to crime and drug overdoses.
Meanwhile, the California National Guard plans to help analyze drug operations with a particular focus on fentanyl traffickers.
Newsom’s announcement did not include details about the number of people involved, funding, or how enforcement would look. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment.
The multi-agency effort comes as San Francisco grapples with an alarming rise in deaths linked to fentanyl, a drug known to be more potent and deadly than heroin.
In 2021, 474 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses in the city. This year, he said, between January and March, 200 people died from accidental drug overdoses, the majority of which involved synthetic opioids. San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey thanked Newsom. twitter For providing the city with “a much-needed national resource to disrupt, dismantle and deter brazen open-air drug markets.”
State Senator Scott Weiner also said he welcomed the coordinated effort, but also noted that the governor rejected a bill to create a pilot program for safe places of consumption in the city. San Francisco Standard report.
[ad_2]
Source link
