Data on San Francisco drug dealing may help set better policies to fight crisis

New data is shedding new light on San Francisco's efforts to battle back against open-air drug use and sales. City leaders say the data can help set policy to battle the City's drug problem.

The news is from the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, and they show the overwhelming majority of those arrested for drug charges in San Francisco are not from the city.

New data provides new insight into who is participating in San Francisco's drug markets. Since May 30, San Francisco has booked, cited or medically treated 71 people. Only four of those actually resided in San Francisco.

San Francisco Chief of Police Bill Scott says the information is critical to offer a snapshot into what's happening on the city's streets. Scott says the arrests and the data they yield send a clear message. 

"The message that we want to send is that we can't tolerate it, we won't tolerate it," said Scott. "This is not the place to come and use or sell in public places or anywhere else. Because the bottom line is, people are dying from fentanyl in our city by record numbers."

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Supervisor Matt Dorsey represents San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood and says the data is critical to understanding the nature of illegal drug sales and use in San Francisco. He says the data seems to bear out the idea that there is "drug tourism" happening in San Francisco and that armed with that knowledge, the City can begin to shape policy to curb that. 

"I think we have to take a really hard look and ask some hard questions about what we are doing to incentivize people to come here and to engage in conduct that is illegal," said Dorsey.

Scott says the additional resources provided by the state, the California Highway Patrol, and the law enforcement team of the California National Guard have been critical; and Scott says San Francisco will soon receive additional resources from the state. 

"I'm absolutely sure that the governor is going to give us more resources, and we welcome that," he said.

The latest data from the city show since June 12, just over two weeks, officers have seized more than 2.5 pounds of fentanyl, and more than $17,800.