Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
San Francisco reported a total of 699 deaths from accidental opioid overdoses during 2020, a record number, after a 63 percent increase from 2019, the county's Office of Forensic Medicine (OCME) reported.
The report, which runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, and was released Thursday, says 82 percent of those who overdosed were men, while 18 percent were women.
In terms of race, the most affected was Caucasian, representing 48 percent of deaths, followed by people of African descent with 25 percent, Latinos, 16 percent, others, 5.0 percent, and Asians, 4.0 percent.
The report itself details that, according to the preliminary data, the ages with the highest number of incidents were 55 to 64 years old with 25 percent of total deaths; followed by 35 to 44 years old with 23 percent; 45 to 54 years old with 22 percent; 25 to 34 years old with 16 percent; 65 years old and over with 10 percent; and 15 to 24 years old with 4.0 percent.
The OCME highlights in the document that the drug that was responsible for the highest number of accidental overdoses was fentanyl, followed by methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and medical opioids.
Experts believe the increase in overdoses may have been driven by the VID-19 epidemic, because while isolation helps stop the spread of the virus, for drug users it has increased the possibility of taking hard drugs that lead to death.
More than 20 percent of accidental overdose deaths in San Francisco were in the Tenderloin, followed by SOMA, Nob Hill and Inner Mission.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not yet issued its report on the number of deaths in the country due to accidental opioid overdoses, but in 2019 it said that nearly 71,000 people died from such causes, much of which were due to fentanyl.
