Fentanyl overdose is laying waste to San Francisco. More people die from overdose than COVID-19 in the city. The human misery plays out in the open in the Tenderloin everyday.

Narcan spray is effective to rescue people from near death. Some drug abusers are saved this way, maybe once, maybe twice, until one day they finally kill themselves. Mayor London Breed has declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin. Other people object to her approach. Either way, no one really has a promising solution to turn the tide.

Out of this despair, I want to point out a fact that jumps out at me. The chart above shows that Asian stand out as the group least affected by the drug epidemic, much less compared even to the economically well off white population. They are clearly doing something right. Learning how they successfully resisted drugs could reveal key insight against the calamity.

2022.02.24 comments