Manny’s: Understanding Addiction Night 2 – the Overdose Epidemic and Recovery Debate

This event is night 2 of our four part Series on “Understanding Addiction and Recovery”

In late 1990s San Francisco, more than 100 people died of heroin overdoses a year. In the fentanyl era, those numbers seem quaint. At least 600 people have died of overdose every year since 2020, with a high of 810 in 2023.

The unrelenting tragic pace — 358 more in the first half of 2025 — has spurred debate about harm reduction, a complex set of policies and tools that grew out of the AIDS crisis and became official city policy in 2000. It includes Narcan, medication-assisted treatment, and supportive housing that permits the use of drugs and alcohol. Some policy makers, health providers, and advocates are examining what’s working and what isn’t. How can San Francisco get beyond its typical polarization to help people with addiction and recovery?

Join us for a discussion with two people on the front lines. Del Seymour knows the Tenderloin, ground zero of SF’s overdose epidemic, better than anyone. He was an addict and dealer in the neighborhood for 18 years. He now runs Code Tenderloin and leads walking tours there, and serves on a local homelessness oversight board. Keith Humphreys is a Stanford University professor who studies addiction science and public policy. He was a policy advisor in the Bush and Obama administrations.

Humphreys and Seymour will be in conversation, moderated by The Frisc editor Alex Lash.

Del Seymour, Photo Credit – Pamela Gentile