A city in crisis: How fentanyl devastated San Francisco - BBC Newsnight

I love how BBC is reporting on this, but none of the news agencies in California will touch it to this degree. Thanks for showing the truth of what's happening in these cities.

I divorced my wife due to her addiction. She died from an overdose. I ended another relationship due to her drug use, she took fentanyl and died from an overdose. I left the bay area after that. I have never done drugs. I stay away from them completely.

I started doing drugs since my teenage, got addicted to fentanyl. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Fentanyl addiction actually destroyed my life. Not until my wife recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 4 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

Sad how she blames everyone else a little bit but doesn’t blame herself. I blame myself for a lot of my kid’s mistakes. I also say it openly.

Was an opiate addict for 20 years. Got into fentanyl bout 2 years ago and almost lost everything. You stop paying your bills, stop taking care of yourself.. I've been completely clean for almost a year now and I've worked hard to rebuild my life. I've been able to keep my car and apartment, fix my license, pay back people I owed money to, get back some of things I sold.. I've lost a couple teeth and had to get dental work done... Fentanyl is an amazingly addictive opiate. But there's help out there. You just have to commit to it.

Its just as bad here in Hartford CT. Cops only shut down the block along with all the drug dealers when someone gets shot or dies. Fentanyl took everything from me including my mother. She was a chronic pain patient who the doctors gave massive amounts of pain pills and even fentanyl patches. She was only 59 with a lot of life left. She was a retired nurse from Hartford Hospital who raised me all by herself. She fell asleep and never woke up. I found her barely breathing but it was too late. Her brain went without oxygen for too long. Stay as far away from pain meds as you possibly can. Its a slippery slope. Im in recovery myself now but the damage has been done. Ill never be the same. Her name was Bonnie and she was the most caring person Ill ever know. Love you mom.

This woman is the worst mayor the SF has ever had!

Watching it from Europe. It's unbelievable. We have nothing even remotely close to such a crisis.

US calling themselve a first world country always gets me

I actually really respect the mayor's change of stance. Whether or not you think it was the right change, the fact is they DID offer BILLIONS of dollars worth of programs and help. And it changed absolutely nothing. Things only got exponentially worse. Then, rather than being an ideological zealot and convincing yourself "you just didn't try it hard enough", she was willing to admit that they really tried the hell out of it, and it was an abysmal failure. So out of the interest of finally fighting this problem, she was actually willing to try her political opponents tactics. It shows that she doesn't care about being right, she only cares about actually solving the problem. I say hats off to her

Where is the mayor, the governor, the president?

2:37 The expensive car driving next to tents perfectly captures what San Francisco has become.

people forget SF was like LSD capital at one point. Drugs drugs drugs. Naturally, the city of hippies became the city of addicts. And we are living in that era right now. Hopefully, it'll be a city of dignity one day.

bring back donald

mayor is responsible for this. should be sacked.

"Can you tell him his Mom is looking for him?" "is everyhting ok?" Wow that man is addicted to drugs and living on the street and is first reaction was to ask if everything was ok.

If you think this is just a “San Francisco” problem you’re terribly mistaken. This is a growing nationwide problem in supposedly the richest country in the world.

can’t blame anyone but yourself for popping that drug

To a lot of people outside the US San Francisco is THE place to be. So iconic and picturesque. I never thought I’d see such images of that city

This mom looking for her son on the streets is breaking my heart. She is so objective about his and her burdensome situation