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Assignment: ‘Tough love’ in San Francisco

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Homeless people sitting on the street in the Tenderloin

10/03/2022 GMT

‘Tough love’ in San Francisco

BBC World Service - Assignment, ‘Tough love’ in San Francisco

A lethal drugs crisis is changing politics in one of America’s most permissive cities

What should California’s famously permissive Golden City do to tackle an epidemic of substance abuse?

Last year, San Francisco had twice as many deaths from drug abuse as Covid. In the central ‘Tenderloin’ district alone, where thousands of homeless people have pitched tents, three people a week are dying. Meanwhile drugs, including highly addictive and dangerous fentanyl, are sold and consumed openly on the street. Many types of crime are rising, and the city is struggling to entice people back after the pandemic exodus. The situation has led some politicians to ask if so-called progressive approaches to policing, homelessness and drug-taking are appropriate – or making things worse. 

In December, San Francisco’s Democratic Party Mayor said the city needed ‘tough love’ – and declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin. The BBC’s James Clayton meets addicts and their families, politicians, and charities, to tell the story of how one of America’s most beloved cities is having a crisis of confidence.

(Photo: Homeless people sitting on the street in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco, California, United States. Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

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