Over the past four years, more than 200 people have died annually of overdoses in Oakland. Yet just across the Bay, San Francisco’s drug epidemic is deadlier.
Although Oakland has more people per capita living below the poverty line and nearly double the number of people per capita living in tents and vehicles, San Francisco’s drug crisis is claiming lives at a far higher rate, especially among Black residents.
Doctors and researchers can’t say with certainty what’s contributing to the disparities between the two cities, but they have a few theories, including the sheer number of drug users, differing drug preferences and local drug supply.
Andrew Herring, medical director of the Alameda Health System Bridge Clinic, which provides same-day drug treatment, said it’s difficult to analyze how the overdose epidemic is affecting San Francisco versus Oakland because they’re so intertwined. Some of the patients he has served at the Oakland clinic, for instance, have fatally overdosed in San Francisco and are therefore counted in San Francisco’s overdose figures.
Read the full article on The San Francisco Chronicle, here.