San Francisco, like the rest of the country, experienced fewer homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies last year.
But in drug offenses, San Francisco’s profile was sharply different. The rate of drug offenses jumped by nearly 54 percent.
Elsewhere, arrests for the manufacture, sale and possession of illicit drugs rose on average by 7 percent, according to a January study by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.
San Francisco, however, counted just under nine arrests for every 1,000 residents in 2025, a nearly 54 percent increase from 2024.
Of the 19 cities that reported 2024 and 2025 drug offense rates to the Council on Criminal Justice, four others also saw more than a 20 percent increase. After San Francisco, Austin had the highest spike, at 46 percent.
Meanwhile, deaths from accidental drug overdoses in San Francisco fell slightly between 2024 and 2025, from 635 to 621. Provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that drug overdose deaths also continued to decline nationwide.
It is unclear from the study why drug offenses are on the rise. San Francisco police officers, for their part, say they are making more arrests and writing more citations than ever before.
In March of last year, San Francisco police officers made 520 drug arrests or citations — the highest tally since 2018. A quarter of all drug arrests in the city that month were concentrated around 16th and Mission, where there was an active police presence.
The reported rate of drug offenses in San Francisco has risen even when compared to pre-pandemic years.
The Council on Criminal Justice study found that violent crime and most property crimes in 40 large American cities fell to or below 2019 levels last year, with crime rates in San Francisco largely mirroring this trend.
But not drug offenses. While the average rates of drug crimes in 16 other U.S. cities were down from their 2019 levels, the rate of drug offenses in San Francisco increased by 121 percent between 2019 and 2025.
Just two other cities in the study saw an increase between 2019 and 2025: Austin (27%) and Dallas (210%).
Probably because they’re prosecuting them more now… you get more of whatever you measure
Correlation is not causation, but it’s likely that by enforcing drug laws (arrests up), we got those people off the streets so they could not go on to commit other property and violent crimes (arrests down). Similar to how enforcing fare evasion resulted in less crime on BART
Thanks for reporting
Arrest all the dealers and addicts
Tired of this persons ruining everyones lives .
They run the alleyways and neighborhood where we live .
They sell the drugs they take the drugs that is there choice . Really tired of the wow is me second change sympathy bs
Mandatory treatment for the addicts
If they find the drugs they can take a pill .
Too much harm still happening and deaths .
SF needs to come down hard on this scene and let it be known this crap is not going to be tolerated
Really tired of the addicts and dealers on our block 24/7.
The smell
Of rotting flesh and death is not pleasant .
The city should pay everyone who reports this crime The law enforcement should come immediately drug test Arrest and remove these persons
Time to use k9 units again
good luck fixing that problem..Drug addicts around the country all know that SF is the place to be if you want to use dope and not be bothered..there is a lot of good stuff available here, Services, Narcan, Walgreens, easy money, free phone/healthcare if you are smart etc..we all know most of those people are coming from other states, probably mostly red states. This city is finding out the hard way that being too lenient has so drawbacks. Major ones..
What “drugs”?
So-called “drugs” are a social, not a criminal problem.
Legalize everything yesterday!