San Francisco is grappling with a staggering increase in drug seizures, particularly of fentanyl, these past two weeks. Mayor London Breed revealed an alarming volume of drug-dealing arrests in Tenderloin and South of Market, with the police department acquiring over 9.5 kilograms of fentanyl. This rampant drug trade is backed by figures showing that such an amount could, hypothetically, overdose every San Francisco resident six times over.

Despite significant hauls, there's a growing issue of dealers returning to the streets after arrest. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins indicates lax judicial approaches and San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy as forces enabling dealers, many of them poor Honduran migrants, to proliferate.

The root causes remain complex and demand collaborative action on local, state, and federal levels. In response, Governor Gavin Newsom has deployed California Highway Patrol officers to trouble areas, while SF Sheriff's deputies enhance street presence and enforcement. The controversy persists over the effectiveness of these strategies and the city's new policy of citing and arresting people for drug usage.

All these developments cast a long and discouraging shadow across the city. Emblematic of this is the forthcoming closure of La Cocina's Municipal Marketplace in the Tenderloin, blamed in part on the neighborhood's decay impacting foot traffic. Some local authorities propose restricting public defense access for drug dealers, as part of a multi-faceted approach to address the crisis. To read the complete article visit SFist