Victory! Gavin Newsom Calls In National Guard For San Francisco Drug Dealing Crackdown

Our coalition of parents, recovering addicts, and fed-up residents won change

Over the last several months, my colleagues in the California Peace Coalition and I have been calling on Governor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed to call out the National Guard. “San Francisco is in free fall,” I wrote earlier this month…. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor London Breed need to deploy the National Guard to restore public safety. That starts with shutting down the open-air drug dealing.” I repeated the call five days later, after Whole Foods announced it was abandoning its flagship store downtown.

Yesterday, our dream came true when Newsom finally announced that he would do just that. “Through this new collaborative partnership, we are providing more law enforcement resources and personnel to crack down on crime linked to the fentanyl crisis, holding the poison peddlers accountable, and increasing law enforcement presence to improve public safety and public confidence in San Francisco,” Newsom said.

Jacqui Berlinn of Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths was overjoyed. “As a mother of a son suffering on the streets of San Francisco from fentanyl addiction, I am overwhelmingly grateful that Governor Newsom is taking action to disrupt fentanyl trafficking in San Francisco. If overdose deaths continue at the current rate, 2023 will be the deadliest year for fentanyl deaths. This is unacceptable. May this be the beginning of a multi-pronged approach to bring health and safety to the cities and streets of California.”