San Francisco is in a downward spiral. Drug crime and homelessness have turned the place of longing into a nightmare in places. Will the city manage to reinvent itself?
By Arndt Peltner
The sight has become almost normal in San Francisco: a man is lying on the ground on the corner of Market Street and 8th Street not far from the United Nations Plaza on the edge of downtown. He has pulled his dirty jacket over his head, one arm is stretched out. In the open hand are a piece of aluminum foil and a glass pipe, next to a lighter. The man, whose age is difficult to estimate, is one of countless fentanyl addicts in town. The opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin and 80 times more potent than morphine. Nearly 400 people have died from overdoses in San Francisco this year alone.
Source: Stern
