Teen Overdose Confirms Arrival of Deadly Opioid in San Francisco

A 16-year-old boy from San Francisco died in April from the city’s first confirmed overdose involving cychlorphine . The synthetic opioid is considered much more potent than fentanyl, which is already more potent than heroin and other opiates. It has killed dozens of people across the country since 2024. This week, San Francisco police announced they had arrested four suspects accused of supplying the deadly pills in the overdose case. We’ll talk about San Francisco’s  response so far, -and what the arrival of this deadly drug means for a city that has struggled with more than 4,000 drug overdose deaths since 2020.

Guests:

• Heather Knight, San Francisco bureau chief, New York Times – She wrote the recent story, “A Teen Autopsy Marks the Arrival of a Deadly Drug in San Francisco.”
• Daniel Tsai, director, Department of Public Health, San Francisco
• Daniel Ciccarone, professor of of Addiction Medicine, UCSF