San Francisco Drug Crisis in Spotlight After Epic Whole Foods Fail

So much to unpack here, 650 people in the city died from drug overdoses while gun violence victims were 222. Imagine if the time money exposure and effort went to just the elimination of fentanyl it would likely save more lives than gun legislation ever will.

but generally, more of those that lean left would prefer hands-off drugs, which means a Democratic government has no incentive to even address the issue much less pass and enforce effective legislation.

Now they have a city so effed up, they can't keep what should be a nice anchor for downtown development and growth open. Because of crime and drugs.

www.newsweek.com...

A major supermarket is quitting downtown San Francisco after just a year of trading—with bosses saying they were unable to "ensure the safety" of staff in the crime-ridden city.

Whole Foods Market opened a new "flagship" branch Downtown, at Eighth and Market near the Trinity Place development, with much fanfare in March 2022. But just 13 months on, the supermarket chain has decided to close it, The San Francisco Standard reported. The store was shuttered at the end of business on Monday.

The move comes as the city remains gripped by crime, homelessness and rampant drug use.

The opioid epidemic in San Francisco, which began in the 1990s, has worsened in recent years with the emergence of fentanyl, an extremely addictive painkiller that has seen public drug use in the streets and caused an uptick in fatal overdoses. According to the San Francisco Medical Examiner, in 2021, 650 people died from drug overdoses in the city, while 712 died of the same cause in 2020.

Check out this map of all-cause homicides in the greater San Francisco area, doesn't California have one of the most restrictive gun laws on the books?

hell, it's a lot but imagine how many drug overdoses in the same area as well as how many crimes are driven by fentanyl addictions. Effective drug rehab and an outright ban on fentanyl of all kinds might help lower all-cause homicides as well as other violent crimes

www.mercurynews.com...



nida.nih.gov...

Some drug dealers are mixing fentanyl with other drugs, such as heroin, coc aine, methamphetamine, and MDMA. This is because it takes very little to produce a high with fentanyl, making it a cheaper option. This is especially risky when people taking drugs don’t realize they might contain fentanyl as a cheap but dangerous additive. They might be taking stronger opioids than their bodies are used to and can be more likely to overdose.

On top of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, has a 9,545,921 Population and 13,567.3 square miles with 703.6 people per square mile. For that amount of people thats an incredibly small number of gun deaths.

a reply to: putnam6
Fentanyl?? What's that?!

We should probably just keep the Mexican border wide open because otherwise we're a racist nation.

a reply to: putnam6

Portugal saw a big reduction in drug-related crime when we decriminalised drug use and drug use was considered a health problem, with free health care.

a reply to: putnam6

IMO 'the war on drugs' is a scam. The government actively pushes these drugs (together with Big Pharma). It's good for business, and a drugged out population won't resist much.

On the other hand the government actively liks to restrict soft drugs (weed, vaping (is that even a drug?) )
because they can't tax those enough and they don't make people sick enough .

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: putnam6

Portugal saw a big reduction in drug-related crime when we decriminalised drug use and drug use was considered a health problem, with free health care.

The thing with legalising drugs is politicians worried they wont be re-elected if they vote for it. Their nice cushy little number doing sweet f.a. every week with a fat pension will be gone.

These days politicians work for themselves not their constituants

Edit. I know other countries have voted it in, but here in Ireland probably the most corrupt governing bodies in Europe, it wouldnt get a chance of being made legal.

As a not nice side note, I cannot understand, if pushers or governments, are allowing this drug debacle of mixing fentanyl with other drugs killing the users as they are killing their market.

a reply to: ArMaP

Which washes economically.

We could imprison these people and pay the 30k a year for them to be locked up, only to come out and not be able to get a job and still be a strain on society.

Or we could be more creative in how to handle it.

Plus, to me, someone becoming addicted to drugs is far more nuanced than them being a “criminal”.

How many of the people who peddled these drugs are in prison? The closest thing I can think of is prisoners of their massive mansions they don’t even explore.

It’s sad the issue is politicized. There’s very little about it that is political, it’s a humanity issue, and it’s not isolated to the West Coast, just ask West Virginia.

There was a good book and TV series called Dope Sick. The author lived pretty close to me, close enough I know some of the actual people two of the characters were based off of. And I can say with confidence a vast majority of the people on this area who for hooked on opioids started from over prescription.

a reply to: crayzeed

It’s a logistics thing.

Fentanyl doesn’t need actual organic source of opium, it’s synthesized. So now sourcing and international traffic isn’t as much of an issue.

You also transport far less volume for the same “effect”, which helps you avoid detection.

a reply to: putnam6

These bought and paid for DA's, whether turned out by the cartels or Soros, in another time, let's just say the citizenry would be giving "extra attention" to these open air crooks.

So much blood on their hands. I'm quite sure entire jurisdiction's are now, and have been for some time, compromised by cartels and Soros money.

It's really in your face stuff. All you have to do is look at the narcotic crisis and how it's NOT being addressed in mostly Democrat strongholds.

They cracked open the border, neutered the police, made looting legal to support the consumption, setup "safe access and use" centers and have really no plan to do anything about it other than trying to contain it in certain areas and letting it fester out of control.

Reminds me of "Hamsterdam" from the HBO Original Series "The Wire".

Watch from the 1:55 mark. Manhattan locale:


San Francisco hands out drug kits with everything you need to do the Big Three: F, C, and M.

Legal, safe use centers to shoot safer dope coming most likely from the same source.

It's absolutely stupifying.

There's simply no good end to this. Meanwhile, the players are amassing incredible amounts of pay off money.

Shaping up to be a very Star trek life there in San Fran.
From: memory alpha

By the 2020s, the American government – reacting to serious problems of homelessness and unemployment – created special Sanctuary Districts (essentially walled-off sections of the city grid) in most major cities. Unfortunately – while established with the benevolent intent of providing free housing and food, as well as prospects for future employment – the Sanctuaries quickly degenerated into inhumane internment camps for the poor. Even though people with criminal records were not allowed inside Sanctuaries, it didn't take long for the homeless and unemployed to be joined by the mentally ill and other, more violent, social outcasts. These groups were referred to by their slang terms – gimmies, dims, and ghosts.

By late 2024, the twenty square blocks that made up Sanctuary District A had become overcrowded slums. With the records of people inside the Sanctuaries not uploaded to the planetary computer network (and therefore not accessible using an Interface), the true conditions inside were unknown to the general public. American society believed that, despite the political upheaval affecting Europe at the time, the United States was stable and had found a way to successfully deal with the social problems that had been the genesis of the Sanctuaries. An "out of sight, out of mind" mentality had set in. People in the district started to believe that their needs were forgotten.

What a weird world we live in.

originally posted by: AgarthaSeed
a reply to: putnam6
Fentanyl?? What's that?!

We should probably just keep the Mexican border wide open because otherwise we're a racist nation.

It's only been wide open for more than two years now, and doesn't look like they're ever going to close it!
President Trump - Please win for us in 2024!!

a reply to: putnam6

I don't think most people are "addicted to fentanyl". They are addicted to opiods or any other drug that can come in powder or pill form that drug dealers add fentanyl to because it is cheaper. Most addicts probably have no idea there is fentanyl mixed in their heroin or pressed into their fake oxycontin pills. But some might seek out fentanyl if they want something harder.

Said it before but the "war on drugs" fails and rehabilitation efforts fail because it is all about the individual. People themselves have to make the choice to stop using. Like how in AA they say "it works if you work it" that is the drug rehabilitation industry admitting that no outside interventions really work long term. Individuals who are addicted have to "work it". No magic bullet there just personal responsibility.

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

To make it clear, drugs were not legalized in Portugal.

Buying, using and possessing drugs are considered administrative offences and can, at most, result in a fine or community service.

Production and sale are still crimes.

The biggest difference was that drug users stopped being considered criminals, with the implications that has, and, being considered a health problem, drug users were given help to stop using it.

As medical treatments cannot be forced in Portugal, if the drug user accepts treatment the fine and other sanctions are suspended, to help people choose the treatments.

a reply to: AgarthaSeed

Most fentanyl crosses the border at legal border crossings with US citizens acting as the mules.

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: putnam6

Portugal saw a big reduction in drug-related crime when we decriminalised drug use and drug use was considered a health problem, with free health care.

it wasn't just decriminalizing that stopped it, back then many European nations were doing various things to strike at the root of disenfranchisement, poverty, etc, to fix society, we over here never did that and still havent, so all decriminalizing would do is create greater incentive for drug abuse, crime and exploitation. American society is survival of the fittest, where the predators are already hogging all the food so if you wish to survive you gotta become a predator and take what you want from the other predators. there's no community spirit here or compassion. a nation doesn't become a superpower without a ruthless society.

And on tonight's episode. THE FECAL MATTER.