Video of zombie-like drug addicts near San Francisco’s Tenderloin goes viral
by The Washington Times AI News Desk · The Washington TimesA disturbing video showing rows of people incapacitated by drugs on a downtown San Francisco street has gone viral on social media, renewing scrutiny of the city’s long-running drug and homelessness crisis — even as police say the footage predates a major enforcement crackdown.
The clip, posted to X on Thursday by JJ Smith — a longtime Tenderloin resident known for documenting conditions in the neighborhood — shows people drugged out, covered in filth and frozen in contorted positions near 7th and Market streets, the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis. The video was widely viewed and prompted alarm online, though the San Francisco Police Department told The California Post it believes the footage was recorded several years ago.
“For context, since we increased our drug enforcement efforts in June 2023, SFPD has made over 14,392 arrests and we’ve seized over 1,259 lbs. of narcotics,” Director of Strategic Communications Evan Sernoffsky said. “The city looks vastly different than when this video was taken.”
The intersection of 7th and Market has long been one of the most drug-troubled corners in the city. More than 20% of nearly 2,220 drug-related incidents recorded by police through mid-October 2023 took place within a block of that corner, according to data compiled by the SF Standard.
The 2023 crackdown Mr. Sernoffsky referenced was part of the city’s Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, known as DMACC, a multi-agency task force. Since its launch, SFPD has seized approximately 960 lbs. of narcotics, including 342 lbs. of fentanyl, and made more than 11,000 arrests, including over 2,200 for drug dealing, according to the department’s most recent public figures. The task force has since expanded from the Tenderloin and South of Market into the Mission District.
Despite those figures, more than a year into the crackdown, users in the Tenderloin said they were still obtaining hard drugs on Market Street between 6th and 7th streets, with locals reporting minimal improvements at the problem-plagued intersections, the SF Standard reported in August 2024.
The “zombie” effect visible in footage like the viral clip has been linked to tranquilizer-laced drug supplies that are increasingly resistant to Narcan, the standard opioid overdose reversal medication, according to public health officials, complicating emergency response efforts.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, who took office in January 2025 after campaigning on a pledge to dismantle the city’s open-air drug markets, has pursued an enforcement-focused approach to the crisis. San Francisco is set to lose more than 450 shelter beds as the city closes multiple Tenderloin shelters — including the Adante, Monarch and Ansonia hotels — while opening new sobriety-focused facilities in other neighborhoods, Mission Local reported this month.
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The video’s recirculation has reignited debate over the city’s harm-reduction policies. Critics argue the approach has effectively tolerated open-air drug use, while advocates for unhoused residents contend that viral footage stigmatizes vulnerable people without addressing root causes such as the shortage of affordable housing and mental health treatment.
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