SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco sued 28 alleged drug dealers who frequent a downtown neighborhood where broad daylight drug dealing and drug use is common in an effort to clean up the area that has seen the city’s largest number of overdose deaths, authorities announced Thursday.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the lawsuits if approved in California Superior Court, would prevent the alleged dealers from entering a 50-block area in the Tenderloin and part of the neighboring South of Market neighborhood. Those who violate the court order would face arrest on misdemeanor charges, a $6,000 fine and the seizure of drugs and money.
These lawsuits won’t solve the problems themselves but they are a step worth taking, Herrera said.
The move comes after a 70% spike in overdose deaths in 2019, when 441 people…