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PREVIOUSLY: ‘We’re Seeing This Now More Than Ever’: Fentanyl Overdoses Skyrocket in Humboldt

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Humboldt County Supervisor Rex Bohn says he’s fed up with the rise in fentanyl overdoses in Humboldt County. 

“I got frustrated,” he said in a phone conversation Monday afternoon, “and it’s just not stopping.”

At tomorrow’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Bohn will ask his fellow supes to consider sending a sternly worded letter to the district attorney of San Francisco, threatening legal action against the city he believes to be the county’s major supplier of the dangerous opioid.

A draft of the letter says, “The ‘open air dealing’ of drugs in the Tenderloin area is causing an environment in which these drugs can be easily located, transported, sold and distributed in the area with no repercussions.”

The letter’s tone reflects Bohn’s frustration.

“The County of Humboldt refuses to sit idle while this drug pours into our county from the Tenderloin,” it says. “If we cannot reach a mutually acceptable solution shortly, we will have no options but to seek a legal remedy.”

The missive is addressed to progressive San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, the son of political radicals and an aspiring criminal justice reformer who’s now facing his second recall attempt over public safety concerns. 

Bohn said there’s precedent for this type of lawsuit, citing Nebraska and Oklahoma’s unsuccessful attempt to sue Colorado after that state legalized recreational cannabis, as well as a recent suit brought by SoCal residents against the City of Los Angeles following a sewage spill last year.

The draft letter that Bohn is bringing forward notes that San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin, though it doesn’t mention that the declaration expired in March.

The draft letter describes some police work from local law enforcement:

The Humboldt County Drug Task Force has surveyed numerous suspected drug dealers and has followed them to the San Francisco Tenderloin District, wherein, they observed them purchasing fentanyl from dealers in the Tenderloin. They were then followed back to Humboldt where they were stopped, and the fentanyl was confiscated. In fact, four people were arrested on April 25, 2022. as they entered Humboldt County after they had purchased fentanyl from the Tenderloin District. Humboldt County had 2 arrests for fentanyl possession in 2020 and 84 arrests in 2021. Currently arrests for fentanyl possession in 2022 are already at 76 and it is only 4 months into the year.

In closing, the draft letter urges Boudin to exercise his authority by “prosecuting all cases that are brought to your office and make [sic] sure the dealers around the state understand that they are not welcome into your county any longer.”

You can read the document via the link below.

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DOCUMENT: Draft letter to San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin