Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A former apartment manager in Santa Clara County is suspected of orchestrating a major identity theft scheme in which she allegedly sold tenants’ personal data while also using their identities to create fake IDs and credit cards in their names.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office announced on X that the suspect admitted to stealing and then selling victims’ information, which she accessed through her job, as NBC Bay Area reports.

When officers from the West Valley Detectives Division obtained a warrant and searched the suspect’s home, they seized ledgers documenting the stolen identities as well as methamphetamine and evidence of drug sales. One of the photos on the Sheriff's Office's X post (and in the top photo of this post) shows a large number of tenants’ keys that were also seized in the bust.

Per KRON4, the woman was booked on multiple felony identity theft and drug charges.

Image: Santa Clara County Sheriff/X

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Blaze one up to check out the biggest scandal of the day, as the New York Times has an exhaustive new exposé on how Elon Musk was hopped up on ketamine, ecstasy, mushrooms, and Adderall on the Trump campaign, and maybe in the White House.

Today is one of those fun “resistance” days on social media, kind of like when Trump got COVID, because of a wild new exposé detailing just how many drugs Elon Musk has been imbibing, and how much. It seemed a funny but throwaway issue during the first Trump administration when Musk was smoking pot on Joe Rogan’s show, or during the Biden administration, when Tesla and SpaceX board members were freaking out over Musk's alleged cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine use.

But once Musk decided to go full MAGA and spent about $275 million of his own money to get Trump elected again, and was allowed to dismantle the US government based on whatever fucked-up mood he was in that day, Musk’s drug use became a vastly more problematic issue.  

And maybe we don’t realize just how problematic this was. Today’s New York Times has a stunning report on Musk’s extensive use of drugs on the Trump campaign trail, raising questions about how high Musk has been while visiting the White House and working for the US government.

According to the Times report, Musk “told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.”

To be clear, the Times report does not specify, or even allege, any drug use while Musk has been visiting the White House or working as a powerful government advisor. But you can draw your own conclusions about Musk’s erratic patterns of shouting matches and Nazi salutes that have characterized this period.

Musk has already told Don Lemon he’d been using ketamine, which is legal with a prescription. But per the Times, umm, these were not small amounts.

“Mr. Musk had been using ketamine often, sometimes daily, and mixing it with other drugs, according to people familiar with his consumption,” the Times reports. “The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him.”

“He also took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, according to those who attended the events.”

Musk's initial response to the Times report, published at 5 am PT this morning, was a Twitter post today hoping to emphasize that he is very good at video games.

“He plays video games for hours on end,” the Times adds. “He struggles with binge eating, according to people familiar with his habits, and takes weight-loss medication. And he posts day and night on his social media platform, X.”

CNN reports that Musk actually had a scheduled press conference right alongside Trump today. That was scheduled for 10:30 am PT, but did not start until 11 am. Hmm, maybe Elon needed just a few more minutes to pull himself together?

That press conference did indeed happen, though the only reporters who were allowed to ask questions were complete Trump sycophants. Fox News’ Steve Doocy brought up the only question on the Times report, and Trump supporters are claiming that Musk “destroyed The New York Times” with his response. You can judge for yourself whether that’s true in the video of the exchange below.

“Wait, wait, the New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate?,” Musk responds. “Is it the same organization? I think it is. I think it is. I think the judge just ruled against the New York Times for their lies about the Russiagate hoax, and that they might have to give back that Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times? Let’s move on.”

The obsequious suck-ass that he is, Doocy does not attempt a follow-up question.

Not only is this an evasive non-denial and desperate attempt to change the subject, Musk's answer is complete bullshit. Yes, the New York Times and Washington Post shared a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. And not a single word of that reporting has been discredited or proven in any way inaccurate.

What Musk refers to here is that Trump has sued the Pulitzer Prize Board for libel. Back in July, the judge in that case simply rejected a bid to dismiss the case. That is by no means ruling “against the New York Times” (the lawsuit is not against them). There has been absolutely no discussion of returning the Pulitzer Prize. It simply means that Trump’s lawsuit has not been tossed out.

But White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also responded to the Times' report in the CNN clip above.

“The drugs I’m concerned about are the drugs that are coming across the border from the criminal cartels that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Miller told CNN.

Yes, but how much of those drugs are going straight up Elon’s nose?

There is also the matter that Musk’s SpaceX is a government contractor, and must maintain a drug-free workplace, so therefore has strict drug-testing rules. But the Times reports that Musk gets advance warning on his own drug tests.

The Times also goes into the issue of Musk's newfound fixation on having as many children by as many different baby-mamas as possible. As noted by the Times, Musk’s most recent child with conservative author Ashley St. Clair is his 14th child by the fourth different mother. And it is well documented, as seen above, that he’s having custody and parenting issues with pop stars Grimes.

Grimes says that Musk is violating their custody agreement by putting the child in the public eye, and even dragging the youngster into the White House. Grimes was reportedly mortified when Musk also went and had twins with one of his Neuralink executives behind her back.

The much larger question is whether this drug use was happening while Musk has been working in the White House, and whether decisions to slash the US government were being made by a man who was high out of his mind. And we imagine there will be further reporting on this.

But to answer another question that is surely on many people’s minds: no there will be no Mike Myers impersonation on Saturday Night Live this weekend. Saturday Night Live wrapped up with its season finale two weeks ago.

Note: This post has been updated with Elon Musk's response if a Friday press conference.

Related: Report: Elon Musk’s Alleged Drug Use Creating Problems for Tesla, SpaceX Board Members [SFist]

Image: BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 05: Elon Musk leaves the stage after addressing a campaign rally with Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds on October 05, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. This is the first time that Trump has returned to Butler since he was injured during an attempted assassination on July 13. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Gatherings of habitual drug users and dealers that used to occur primarily on Sixth Street and in the Tenderloin have shifted to other neighborhoods thanks to the mayor and SFPD's "cleanup" efforts, and neighbors on one Mission District alley held a protest about it.

There was a rally Thursday on Julian Avenue in the Mission where residents say they are fed up with the recent uptick in open-air drug use and vagrancy that moved onto their alley — which is a half-block away from Mission Street and intersects with 16th Street. As the Chronicle reports, a group of about 50 residents from the area gathered with signs saying things like "Drug Enablism Kills" and "Drug-Free Sidewalks," and called on the mayor and police department to stop the game of Whac-a-Mole that has most recently shifted illegal activity to their block.

One longtime Julian Avenue resident, Amilcar Cortez, tells the paper, "It seems like everything they do is just temporary. They’re doing something, but it’s not effective."

To that point, Mission Local has been documenting the 16th & Mission BART plaza and the nearby alleys, including Julian Avenue and Wiese Street, every day for the past two months. As of Day 60 of their project, they report that the activity on Wiese Street isn't exactly constant ("Mornings are generally emptier, and afternoons busier. Sometimes, police drive vans down the alley and move everyone along, before they amble back."), but it certainly feels that way to residents.

As SFist noted in March, the drug activity that had been concentrated by the BART plazas has largely moved to the alleys due to more constant harrassment by police.

"We’ve got kids on this block. You come home from school and people are passed out on our porch," said Julian Avenue resident Andrew Wickens, a father of two who has been documenting the scene on Xitter, speaking to Mission Local. "We’re tired of sweeping up needles and skin and fentanyl smoke just to get our kids inside."

Speaking at the rally Thursday, Wickens told the crowd that when he is walking his kids home from school sometimes, they encounter "20 people using drugs on our front porch, with diarrhea, with needles, blowing fentanyl smoke in our windows."

He also described having to sweep up a man's dead skin that he had been picking off his ankles onto Wickens's front steps.

Neighbors complain about the Gubbio Project, a harm-reduction non-profit that has been operating out of the nearby St. John the Evangelist church, providing food and daytime shelter to people on the street. Residents say that the place is an unofficial safe-consumption site that is enabling drug users and attracting them to the area. (The 21-year-old non-profit was attempting to set up an officially sanctioned safe-consumption site several years ago, but the city ultimately pulled the plug, worried about legal blowback.)

One photo from Mission Local shows a child holding a hand-written protest sign saying, "Harm Reduction Kills Neighbors." And, as Mission Local reports, one individual among the ralliers allegedly walked into the church just before the rally and shouted at Gubbio Project staff members, demanding to speak to a supervisor.

Mission Local also reported on an alleged assault that occurred after the rally, in which local poverty pornographer jj smith, aka Omar Ward, whose tweet is posted above, had his Meta glasses — which he was using to take video — knocked off his face.

The Chronicle also headed to Hayes Valley, where alleyways have also begun to attract homeless individuals and/or drug users seeking peace and quiet. One neighbor there said that the presence of people camped on the street seemed to  have increased recently.

One 50-year-old homeless man, Michael Barton, told the Chronicle that he'd been given a room in an SRO to sleep in, but he preferred camping out on the streets in Hayes Valley because it was quieter — and the SRO felt loud and chaotic at night.

Previously: New 16th Street Police Presence Just Moving Blight to Nearby Alleys, Residents Say

Photo by Andrew Wickens/X

The Whac-a-Mole games continued Wednesday night with another law enforcement sweep and mass arrest on San Francisco's Mid-Market Street, resulting in 40 more drug users and/or dealers arrested.

San Francisco police were assisted by SF Sheriff's deputies in a Wednesday night sweep at Van Ness Avenue and Market Street. Video posted by the SFPD shows two school buses parked on Market Street to transport arrestees, and dozens of people in various states of inebriation having their wrists zip-tied.

Police say they made 40 arrests, and said in a tweet, "This activity will not be tolerated and we will continue these operations for as long as it takes."

San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto went on KPIX/CBS5 early Thursday to talk about the sweep, suggesting that it is their goal to "disrupt" these drug markets and "funnel people into services," though it remains unclear how successful these efforts have been. And, Miyamoto admits, they continue to see some of the same people being arrested in sweeps like this one, and one they conducted three weeks ago in Jefferson Square Park.

KPIX reports that Jefferson Square Park neighbors have seen a significant improvement and a drop in nighttime drug activity in the park since the raid occurred. But critics continue to point out that these actions are only serving to create new hubs of drug activity elsewhere, including in the Mission District.

Van Ness and Market, and around the Muni station there, apparently had become another one of those hubs, just as alleys off of Van Ness have been in recent years.

Miyamoto defends the law enforcement sweeps against criticism saying, "We need that constant engagement [and] we don't want to arrest our way out of this problem. People need help. People are gripped in the throes of addiction, and we really need to get them the help and services that they need to get out of that cycle."

He says that having these individuals become "a part of the justice system" and having to constantly go before the courts is "one way that we [have] to maneuver them to those areas where they... can get those services."

Miyamoto says that law enforcement is hoping to "change the dynamic" and make visitors and residents alike feel safer walking on SF's streets.

Still, we have not seen much if any data that shows that these cycles of arrests have gotten many addicts into treatment or off the streets. But it does seem to be effective, in the short term, of discouraging them from gathering in these open-air spaces to buy and use drugs — they just generally seem to find a new space pretty soon.

Previously: Sixth Street Crackdown Seems To Be Just Merely Pushing Blight to Mission District

The circus continues out of Trump's Washington, where clown-car cabinet member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now apparently wielding the power of the FDA to go after manufacturers of amyl nitrate, or poppers.

Austin-based poppers maker Double Scorpio, who have previously showcased their artisanal poppers flavors at Folsom Street Fair and elsewhere in the universe of LGBTQ fairs, posted on their website Thursday that their offices were raided by the FDA, and they are ceasing operations for now.

"We don’t have a lot of information to share but we believe that the FDA has performed similar actions towards other companies recently," they write. "Thank you to everyone who has supported us these last eight years. We’ve always cared about making an authentic product and being engaged with and supporting our community."

Poppers, which have been used as a gay party and gay sex drug for more than five decades, produce a brief high and can aid in sexual arousal. Amyl nitrate is in a class of drug known as vasodilators, which include blood pressure meds and ED meds like Viagra. Poppers are typically sold under euphemistic labels like "VHS head cleaner" and "air freshener."

Fast Company reports that other makers of poppers have recently scrubbed their social media, and have likely seen raids as well.

But, as KRON4 reports, this crackdown is likely being driven by newly installed Health & Human Services Secretary RFK Jr., and because of a semi-popular, longstanding conspiracy theory (also held by Joe Rogan!) that suggests that AIDS wasn't caused by a virus, but by immunodeficiency brought on by recreational drug use.

Them, an online queer magazine, is basically saying "We told you so," after publishing an article in November reminding everyone that this was a pet theory of RFK Jr. We all know that he's loony toons, and now at the helm of our health system, and you only need look at his 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci, where, as Them notes, "Kennedy frequently cited the long-discredited work of AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg, falsely claiming that 'heavy recreational drug use in gay men and drug addicts was the real cause of immune deficiency' among AIDS victims of the 1980s and 1990s." And Kennedy, who IS NOT A SCIENTIST, further writes that he has never "found any evidence that HIV ever actually kills a T-cell."

A 2023 paper on the National Institutes of Health website, which at this rate is probably going to get scrubbed by Trump-Nazi censors, debunks this poppers theory and reviews all the literature over the years that suggested a causal connection between poppers and HIV.

"During the HIV surge in the 1980s, inhaled volatile nitrites (poppers) were hypothesized as a possible cause of the AIDS," the abstract reads. "Later it was found that poppers use was not the cause but rather a marker associated with HIV acquisition and sexual behaviors without the use of prevention tools."

And while poppers have typically been primarily associated with gay men, gay men are also known for trendsetting, and a New York Times trend piece from 2022 noted how poppers have become a "party girl favorite" for straight people too in recent years.

Get 'em while you can, kids! It sounds like poppers might not be so easy to find in a few weeks or months, if RFK Jr. has his way.

San Francisco's Sixth Street, two blocks of it anyway, has been a circus of drug use and general chaos for going on four decades, if not more. But business owners and police say that it's suddenly gotten much worse.

The Chronicle reports from a Wednesday town hall meeting organized by the South of Market Business Association at which multiple community members spoke about deteriorating conditions on the street, as the fentanyl crisis continues to ravage the area.

"I’ve been here for 14 years and I’ve never seen it this bad," said Tadd Cordell, who opened Monarch nightclub at Sixth and Mission in 2010. "In the middle of San Francisco, Sixth Street has been ceded to junkies."

The "it's worse than it's ever been" refrain is a very familiar one in San Francisco of the last decade, usually in discussions of homelessness and crime and usually without data to back to up the assertion. But San Francisco Police Chief William Scott was on hand at Wednesday's meeting and he confirmed what business owners were seeing, per the Chronicle.

And there's a simple explanation for why this is. Efforts by the city to visibly clean up and clear out UN Plaza and the areas around it have pushed dealers and fentanyl users to other locales, Sixth between Market and Howard being one of them.

The mayor's much-touted efforts to curtail illegal activity in the Tenderloin this year has likely played a role as well — in addition to the ordinance that put a curfew on all corner stores in a specific swath of the Tenderloin just across Market Street from this stretch of Sixth. Stores on Sixth Street don't have this curfew.

As Scott told the attendees at the meeting, per the Chronicle, he had walked Sixth Street recently and "It’s bad. There’s no mistake about it." Scott also acknowledged the significant improvements at UN Plaza, saying, "we’re seeing the displacement of the problem to other areas."

Sixth Street has had the reputation it's had for many years in part because of the row of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels on its first two blocks, drawing a population of people who often come down to the street to socialize, as well as to score drugs.

In an otherwise less-violent year around town, Sixth Street saw several shootings, including one in which two people were injured and one person was killed in August.

Wednesday's meeting was held at Trellis, a nine-year-old coworking space and cafe at Sixth and Mission. Owner Rebecca Pan tells the Chronicle that she saw around 100 people gathered and injecting fentanyl across the street from her cafe on Monday, and the next morning, about 15 of them were outside the cafe's door "drugged out of their mind." And during Wednesday's meeting, as the Chronicle reports, someone's cellphone was stolen off a table.

The SFPD didn't make any promises about when or how the situation may improve for businesses on Sixth Street. Chief Scott only said, "We’re trying to get people off the streets, not off Sixth Street so they go to Fifth Street."

Related: SF Supervisors Approve Mayor Breed’s Plan to Shut Down Tenderloin Corner Stores at Midnight

Many people seriously addicted to fentanyl have already died in San Francisco, and those who are still alive increasingly have access to Narcan and have learned what their limits are, which experts say are both reasons why the number of fatal overdoses has declined.

There have been headlines the past couple of months celebrating new low numbers of overdose deaths in San Francisco, something that has been counted a win for public health measures like widespread distribution of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan/nalaoxone. In October, the city recorded 32 fatal overdoses, which certainly still seems like too many, but it is the lowest number since the city began tracking these figures monthly four years ago.

The fentanyl crisis remains relatively new, both here and elsewhere in the country. The drug only gained prominence over other drugs like oxycodone and heroin in the US black market a few years ago, owing to its incredible potency and cheapness, leading to the dystopian scenes we see play out in urban centers around the US.

But there are signs, including the decreasing fatal overdose figures, that both our city and the rest of the country has reached an inflection point.

As the Chronicle reports today, after speaking with multiple public health and addiction experts locally, a few factors seem to be at play in causing the overdose numbers to abate.

For one, paradoxically, the introduction of Tranq or xylazine in the drug supply appears to cause less severe overdoses. And, because xylazine causes users to get terrible skin lesions and infections, they may end up doing it less often. Researchers who have been tracking drug users in areas where xylazine is more prevalent than here, including Pittsburgh and Grand Rapids, have found users saying that xylazine prevents withdrawal from happening as quickly — and along with the skin lesion issue, ends up causing them to use less often.

Availability of methadone and buprenorphine, which are both used to treat opioid addiction, along with new behavioral health options, have led to an increase in drug users seeking treatment, according to the SF Department of Public Health. The number of users checking into treatment facilities locally is up 21% compared to last year. And while just over 200 people sought treatment in the fourth quarter of 2023, that number rose to almost 300 in the most recent quarter.

Users may be learning to be smarter about their use after more experience with fentanyl, health officials say. But there is also evidence that the fentanyl-user population itself is shrinking. While existing fentanyl users are getting older — or, in some cases, dying — not as many younger users are replacing them, experts say.

"As there’s more death and destruction, people are losing people they know, seeing this incredible damage... It lowers people’s willingness to initiate drug use," says  Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher and a professor of psychiatry at Stanford, speaking to the Chronicle. "Over time, that shrinks the vulnerable population."

Researchers saw a similar phenomenon with the crack epidemic of the 1980s and early 90s — it faded out not because of government intervention, but mostly because younger people saw the drug's negative effects in their communities and weren't doing it, choosing to experiment with other drugs like marijuana instead.

Nationally, overdose deaths, many of them fentanyl-related, peaked in 2023, and also are coming down. Fatal overdoses are down 15% since last year, nationally, and down 10% in California, though these numbers are still provisional, as the Chronicle reports via the CDC. Part of this decline, experts say, is also the end of the COVID pandemic, during which individuals were more isolated, and the number of overdoses skyrocketed.

Related: SF Overdose Deaths Hit Promising New Low

Top image: A photo of "rainbow fentanyl" from the Placer County DA's Office

We’ve all observed the tell-tale sign that someone is high on fentanyl in that they’re bent over and frozen in the so-called “fentanyl fold,” and a new Chronicle report speaks to medical experts and users about why this happens.

The most troubling aspect of San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis is the more than 800 people who died from drug overdoses last year, and of those, around 80% involved the use of the deadly opioid fentanyl. This is a national problem, and not at all exclusive to San Francisco.

But given the national media obsession with bashing San Francisco, it’s frequently pointed out that fentanyl users are often hunched over on SF streets. This too happens in other cities across the US, but there’s a lot of media focus on calling out SF for it, as seen in the Sky News report below on the “drug-ravaged Tenderloin.”

Today’s Chronicle takes a semi-scientific look into why people slouch over when using fentanyl. Turns out this happens to some degree with many other opioids, like heroin and oxycodone — the so-called "nod" one gets in an initial high. But since much of the fentanyl supply has become exponentially more powerful than heroin, the slouching effect is most pronounced with fentanyl.

“What you’re witnessing is the balance point between passing out,” UCSF professor of addiction medicine Dr. Daniel Ciccarone told the Chronicle. “When you lose all muscular control and are on the floor – versus some small remnant of consciousness that is keeping the person up-right.”

The "fentanyl fold" effect can reportedly kick in within two or three minutes after taking the drug. And oddly, users report the feeling is actually somewhat euphoric.

The Chronicle also spoke to several fentanyl users about the slouch, which gives insight into how people end up using the drug on the streets. One 50-year-old user Jeff Barlow had been a school teacher and motocross racing hobbyist, and required surgery after an accident. That got him hooked on painkillers, and he’s now on the streets of SF, sometimes slouched.

“You don’t even know you’re like that,” Barlow said to the Chronicle.

“It’s like falling asleep in class,” he added. “You blink your eyes and 20 minutes go by. You’re kind of half-in and half-out of consciousness.”

Yes, this can cause spinal disorders, as well as neck and back issues. The cruel irony is that some people use fentanyl for pain relief, which it provides in the short term, but the slouching can aggravate these medical issues in the long run.  

“I take it because it helps with the pain on my knee and my foot,” user Frederick Smith told the Chronicle. “But it makes everything worse.”

ABC 7 did a similar story in March about why fentanyl causes this particular bent-over reaction. One user they spoke to, who had taken the drug hours earlier but remained bent over, was asked if he was able to stand up straight. "I mean, I can, but it hurts a lot to have to do that," he said.

Researchers still don't know if fentanyl causes long-term effects on the spine, however there are signs that it causes major systemic and circulation issues. As ABC 7 learned from researchers, the thinking is that the acidic nature of the drug leads to the collapsing of veins. Additionally, fentanyl that is mixed with "tranq" or xylazine has been shown to cause terrible skin ulcers that can become infected.

Related: Walgreens Now Selling Cheaper Generic Narcan Over the Counter, and It’s Already Available [SFist]

Image: @citizenj17 via Twitter

Is it a good idea to have three kilos of cocaine and 600 grand in cash sitting in your van at 17th and Shotwell streets? Probably not, and two people learned that the hard way in a recent Mission District drug bust.

An apparently suspicious van was parked at 17th and Shotwell streets on Thursday, May 30. SFPD received a tip that something sketchy may have been going on with that van. So they got a warrant to search said van, and as seen below, by golly did that tip prove to be correct.

“Large quantities of various narcotics,” indeed.

SFPD says in a Friday press release that “Officers located and seized the following from inside the vehicle: large quantities of suspected narcotics including approximately 3 kilos of cocaine HCL, ketamine, mushrooms, acid, suspected MDMA, methamphetamine, and various other prescription narcotics as well as over $600,000 in US currency.”

Two suspects who are both 46 years old, Robert Pritchard and Ronald Butera, were both pulled out of that van and arrested, Kilos, as you would imagine, will account for additional charges. Both are also charged with possessing and transporting controlled substances, and Butera already had an outstanding warrant on him for other charges.

And according to KRON4, a tipster’s information led to the bust. “A community member alerted SFPD about a vehicle that may have been involved in drug distribution,” that station reports.

While arrests have been made, this remains an ongoing investigation. If you have any information, you’re asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at (415) 575-4444, or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous.

Related: Authorities Seize $15,000 Worth of GHB From Marin Nail Salon [SFist]

Image via SFPD

Two hotels in the Tenderloin, the Phoenix and Best Western, as well as a group of residents, have filed a lawsuit against the city that's similar to one filed four years ago by UC Hastings.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, says that the city actively treats the Tenderloin neighborhood as a "containment zone" for drugs, "herding" fentanyl users and dealers into the area. The suit, as KRON4 reports, also notes that drug users are easily able to receive "drug kits" like foil and smoking devices from nonprofits in the neighborhood.

Both the Phoenix and Best Western Red Coach Inn, along with four area residents, are parties to the complaint.

The suit mentions the rampant drug activity on Willow Street — the alleyway that borders both the Best Western Red Coach Inn and several other hotels — and also calls out a sanctioned safe-consumption site set up by local activists, and city officials "made no effort to punish or reprimand those who operated it."

Much like a lawsuit that the UC Law school formerly known as Hastings filed in 2020, the new suit is not seeking monetary damages, but is demanding that the city address conditions on Tenderloin streets. In the UC suit, the goal was to make the city address the growing number of tent encampments on the sidewalks surrounding the school's campus — which school officials said the city was condoning in the early pandemic.

The result was a settlement agreement in July 2020 in which the city agreed to make "all reasonable efforts to achieve the shared goal of permanently reducing the number of tents on Tenderloin sidewalks to zero," and to "discourage additional people from erecting tents in the neighborhood."

Drug users and dealers were not the specific target of the suit, and the settlement mostly pushed the city to be more active in moving tent-dwellers into the established hotel shelter-in-place program. But at the time, the school's law chancellor and dean David Faigman said in a statement, "We need the tents and the drug dealers removed and the unhoused moved to safe and temporary housing, such as large tents or other shelter, until a permanent solution is accomplished."

Regarding the new suit, the businesses say they are similarly pushing for real change in the neighborhood.

"The real impetus for this is to create some positive change,” said managing partner of the Phoenix, Isabel Manchester, speaking to the Chronicle. "We want the residents, the employees, the tourists and the businesses in the Tenderloin to be treated the same as everywhere else in the city."

In response to the suit, Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the City Attorney's Office, tells the Chronicle, "While we understand and share the frustration of Tenderloin businesses and residents, the City is making progress in reducing crime, disrupting open-air drug markets, and addressing homelessness, all while complying with the preliminary injunction issued in the Coalition on Homelessness case."

Kwart is referring to the controversial lawsuit, filed in the fall of 2022 by the Coalition on Homelessness and the ACLU, that led to a federal judge issuing an injunction against the city in December 2022 barring it from forcibly clearing homeless encampments. City Attorney David Chiu has, responding to comments from the Ninth Circuit, taken the stance that encampments may legally be cleared if and when campers have been given offers of shelter and they refuse them — which means they are not "involuntarily homeless."

The city has also filed an amicus brief in another case that's before the Supreme Court which could have a serious impact on cases like this going forward. In that case, the justices have agreed to hear arguments regarding local enforcement of homeless camping on city land in a small town in Oregon — with San Francisco and other cities hoping that the conservative majority will come down on the side of more enforcement of no-camping laws.

The Chronicle spoke to several addicts on the street in connection with the new lawsuit, and they were mostly undeterred by recent crackdowns on drugs that the city and police have tried.

"When it comes to quitting dope, it’s gotta be up to the individual and when they want to stop," said one man named G. "And it doesn’t matter how many police you’ve got out here, we’re gonna still do what we want to do."

Previously: UC Hastings Proves That If You Want Homeless Moved Off the Streets in SF (During the Pandemic), You Should Sue

Photo: Google Street View

A new city report that is conveniently timed before Tuesday’s 'drug screening for welfare recipients' vote finds that some drug users get SF welfare even though they don’t live here, though the report only details 41 people doing this.

The Chronicle has run a couple articles this week which might, shall we say, influence your vote on next week’s March 5 SF ballot measure issues.

The first was a long-form Tuesday article that detailed how thousands of innocent people nationwide have been killed by police car chases, published right before Tuesday’s vote on Prop E that would allow SFPD to engage in more car chases.

Now today, the Chronicle has a report on drug users from out of town collecting public assistance benefits from SF even though they live elsewhere, just days before Tuesday’s Prop F vote on drug screening for welfare recipients.

Now in fairness to the Chronicle, they are just covering a report produced by Mayor Breed’s office that was released Thursday morning. But it’s quite clear Breed’s office unveiled this report, at this time, for a reason.

The numbers cover a date range from March 2023 to February 2024, which coincides with the city's drug-use crackdown that’s brought SF Sheriff's deputies, Highway Patrol, and state National Guard into the enforcement effort. It says that out of 718 people arrested for drugs during this period, 47% of them lived in another county (or declined to state an address, which may simply be a sign of homelessness). Half of drug arrestees being from out of town is a lot, though that percentage is lower than the 95% from out of town that SFPD Chief Bill Scott claimed last summer.

The report also notes that 20% of those arrested (141 people) were recipients of the County Adult Assistance Program (CAAP), which is the technical term for welfare payments in SF. And out of those 141 people receiving San Francisco benefits, the report says "33% stated they live outside of San Francisco."

Sounds infuriating! Though the Chronicle notes that this breaks down to “41 of those people reside in other counties” (plus a few more who declined to state address). So while there is some gaming of the system, it seems to be only a few dozen people who are doing this.

That said, these few dozen people are somehow giving false residential information to collect about $712 a month, paid for by your taxes.

“People who submit false claims to programs meant to help people who live here have been removed,” Breed declared on Twitter/X. “We will lead with treatment and efforts to compel people into care. We want to help save lives, not just let people deteriorate on our streets.”

We will take Breed’s word that these out-of-towners have since been cut off from the SF welfare spigot. But one wonders how the same city that dispensed these benefits to out-of-towners is the very same city that determined they are from out of town. Maybe the right hand just wasn’t talking to the left hand? But if the administration is going to make political fodder out of the “drug tourism” trope, it’s also fair to ask questions about the role played by this administration, in power now for nearly five years, and why no one figured this out any sooner.

Related: Sup. Dorsey Demands Report on ‘Drug Tourism,’ Seems to Be Itching For Crackdown [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

San Jose police arrested a San Jose man for allegedly running a drug lab that made “pink cocaine,” a drug containing a mix of ketamine, MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, and opioids, out of the donut shop he owned last month.

The San Jose resident, 32-year-old Luis Carrillo-Moyeda, owned and operated a Yum Yum Donuts franchise in South San Jose, as SFGATE reported. It’s located at 400 Blossom Hill Road in a shopping mall.

When police investigated and executed a search warrant at the location, they found various illegal narcotics, narcotics manufacturing parts, large amounts of cash, an unregistered firearm, and ammunition, according to an SJPD press release.

Police say that the narcotics were a new synthetic drug called “pink cocaine," also known as "Tusi", "2C", "Pantera Rosa," or “Pink Panther." It’s apparently a trendy party drug dyed pink with food coloring, known for its hallucinogenic and stimulant effects. The drug 2C is a synthetic hallucinogen, but tests show that pink cocaine doesn’t usually contain 2C itself, according to the Chronicle.

Court records show that Carrillo was arraigned January 24 and is scheduled to return to court March 4, per the Mercury News. He is currently out on bail.

Yum Yum Donuts has three locations in San Jose and dozens of locations across California, including in Sacramento and Stockton. Carrillo only owned one franchise location, the one on Blossom Hill Road.

Feature image via SJPD.

Starting July 1, California drinking establishments will be required to stock testing kits that tell you if your drink has been spiked with common date rape drugs like ketamine or GHB, though bars won’t have to provide the testing strips for free.

There are already many Bay Area bars and nightclubs that hand out fentanyl testing strips so you can check and see if your party drugs are laced with deadly fentanyl. But come July 1, thanks to a new California law, the state’s bars and nightclubs will be required to provide testing strips of a different nature. KGO reports that the new law requires bars to carry strips to test if your drink has been spiked with date rape drugs like GHB or ketamine, in response to an increasing scourge of people getting unwittingly drugged at drinking establishments, which is often followed by a sexual assault.

The bill is called AB-1013, and Governor Newsom signed it in October. It takes effect July 1. The law will only apply to establishments with Type 48 licenses, that is, those that only serve drinks and not food. Bars will be required to stock the testing strips, though they will not be required to provide them for free. And per the wording of the law, bars will also be required to post a sign saying, “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”

The bill was introduced by Long Beach Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, himself a bar and restaurant proprietor. “Due to the challenges of addressing and prosecuting this crime after it has taken place, preventative measures are a commonsense way to try to curb the instances of drugging that are taking place in Type 48 establishments,” Lowenthal said in a statement while the bill made its way through the legislature.

These drink testing strips are often available online at about a dollar for one strip, or as little as 10 or 20 cents if you buy them in bulk. And again, bars won’t be required to hand them out for free, so there is no automatic financial burden on the establishment.

“There’s no taste. There’s no scent. There is no color to them. They’re really tough to detect, but very fortunately, they’re easy to test,” Lowenthal told KCRA. “Just one drop of your drink onto a test coaster, and you know immediately if your drink has been spiked.”

Some California communities have tried to address this locally. L.A.’s KCBS reported that the City of West Hollywood started providing bars with the strips for free in August of 2022, and KGTV adds that Long Beach provides them for free to bars in that SoCal city.

Related: SF Game Developers Conference Rollicked By Multiple Allegations of Drink Spiking, Sexual Harassment [SFist]

Image: glasses alcohol cocktail set and beer on a waiter tray in bar (Getty Images)