The Castro Country Club offers a glimpse of what the flip side of an otherwise horrific spike in drug overdoses across SF could look like. But safe spaces for meth users are scant here. Even more rare are treatment options to lead someone through recovery.
• February 25, 2022 1:30 am - Updated February 25, 2022 12:31 pm
“That first experience is fantastic and you could try to replicate that for years, usually to no avail,” said Lemon. “So you wind up doing more, more frequently. What used to be fun becomes fun with consequences, and it’s then just consequences, and before you know it you’re in jail. That was my case.”
from the Office of the Medical Examiner. In January 2022 alone, 26 out of 46 overdose deaths were meth-related while 28 involved fentanyl, often in combination. A few years later, Lemon lost his bartending gig and went on unemployment, and from there, he said, “it snowballed.” On meth, Lemon could stay up for hours on end exploring his new community and identity with the help of a powerful social lubricant. It allowed him to silence the shame he had carried while feeling like his bubbly, energetic self again.
Lemon was arrested multiple times, and in 2009, faced serious time in prison. He had hit an all-time low. That’s when a bizarre miracle of sorts happened. At the time, San Francisco was dealing with illicit drug sales within The City’s own ranks. An investigation found a former lab technician at the police department stole and used some of the cocaine she was supposed to analyze.
“It is absolutely possible to recover and get long-term sobriety. I see it every day,” said Lemon. “The missing component for a lot of folks when they decide to get sober is the opportunity to build a community of support.”Compared with fentanyl, which began taking over drug markets in San Francisco around 2018, meth has a longer history in The City. It first became popular in the 1990s in New York City and eventually seeped into San Francisco.
“This is playing a role in the crisis on our streets,” said Mandelman. “And that remains issue number one for my constituents.” “There is no treatment available and accessible and appropriate to treat folks with meth,” said Guzman. “People who use meth want solutions.” Yet supporters say sobering and supervised consumption sites, which San Francisco is also preparing to open, are even more necessary as fentanyl has shortened the window of time required to respond to and reverse overdoses.
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