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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) –The city of San Francisco has now surpassed its deadliest year on record for overdose deaths. More than 750 people have died of overdoses in 2023, and more than 80% of those deaths involve fentanyl.
San Francisco is one of 70 cities taking advantage of the federal program to test wastewater for substances such as fentanyl. But critics who work in harm reduction say the federal money should be used in other ways.
Wastewater testing during the pandemic has helped track COVID cases, and now it will be done at two wastewater treatment plants in San Francisco to track the trends of fentanyl. Dr. Hillary Kunins from the San Francisco Department of Public Health says the data will help guide the city’s overdose prevention efforts.
“Increases or decreases as a way to predict what we might see in both non-fatal overdoses and fatal overdoses,” she explained.
The federal program, spearheaded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, isn’t just for fentanyl. It will also test for meth, cocaine, xylazine, amphetamine, and Naloxone, which is used to reverse the effects of an overdose.
Dr. Jeffrey Hom says the data will be used for public health and academic purposes, but it can’t be used by law enforcement.
“We don’t anticipate any privacy issues,” he said. “These data are anonymous and can give us a snapshot of risky substance use at a city level, not on a neighborhood or individual level.”
The department did not elaborate on exactly how tracking this information would guide their response to what is a nationwide problem.
Experts in harm reduction have criticized San Francisco’s tactics in fighting the opioid crisis before. When it comes to wastewater testing, Jose Martinez from the National Harm Reduction Coalition says the federal money should instead be used to provide outreach to those struggling with addiction.
“We talk how we want a certain community to be a contributing member of society, but rarely are we willing to provide the skills needed to go from one lifestyle to another,” he said.
The San Francisco DPH expects to receive the first results from the wastewater testing next month and then every two weeks after that.
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