City Seeks to Lesson Opioid Harm

By Casey Michie

cmichie1@mail.ccsf.edu

As the opioid epidemic in San Francisco has prompted City Officials to declare a state of emergency and introduce new initiatives, City College continues to offer limited solutions through certificate programs and student services amid budget uncertainty. 

The programs at City College are more vital now than ever, as the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated drug overdoses in the United States. Provisional data from the CDC found an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States from April 2020 to April 2021 with over 10,000 deaths in California alone, representing a 28.5% increase from 2019-2020.  

These alarming rates have prompted Mayor London Breed to declare a state of emergency and introduce new initiatives such as the Street Overdose Response Team. “We know that overdose deaths are preventable and every person who dies is someone’s son, daughter, friend, or neighbor. It is urgent that we save lives by doing what we know will work best,” Mayor Breed said in a press release unveiling initiatives for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.