are here today who share in the credit for today's announcement. and with that, we have 3 speakers today. it's my honor to bring up somebody who has for his entire life but particularly in resent years as been grappling crisis after crisis and i'm of course i'm referring to dr. colfax. [applause] >> well thank you city attorney too. i really want to thank you for giving you the perspective on what pharmaceutical distributors did to create this crisis. i trained during the period of time that you talked about including at zuckerberg san francisco hospital and i witnessed firsthand the pharmaceutical and distributor abuse of patients, the most

vulnerable populations in fueling addiction, the consequences of which we are dealing with today. and i really want to thank you and your team for the leadership you showed in holding the distributors accountable and i also want to acknowledge and thank the dph team of experts who testified as well our other city partners. commit today preventing overdose deaths through aggressive interventions. our priority is to bring people with substance use disorders into care and to save lives. with the addition of these settlements, dollars the city will help many on their journey to wellness and recovery. the national fentanyl crisis has affected cities across the country including san francisco.

fentanyl a synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent anmore phene. our strategy includes urgently distributing the medication of reversing overdoses. we distributed over 7 2000 of naloxone to save lives. and in resent months, we have trained 3300 people to recognize and respond to an overdose. the department has also made treatment for opioid disorder a key priority including using evidence based treatments including morphine and methadone accessible to people so that they can deal with

their addiction and begin the journey of treatment and recovery. over the last few years, the department has increased its service hours so that every door is truly the right door for people to receive he's live saving medications. in addition, our behavior health pharmacy makes regular deliveries, meeting people where they are at city funding housing to provide them with the services that they need including a clinical psychiatric pharmacist and nursing to start people on medications. providing care for people who are experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders who are vulnerable to overdose, is a high priority for the department. 7 days a week, our street care teams, are in neighborhoods with public drug use work to go

draw people under care. but a care presence these trust with individuals weary of healthcare settings due to the trauma of homelessness or reluctant to stop using drugs. we are also implementing a major expansion of residential care and treatment beds for people with behavioral health needs including substance use disorders. in resent years we have opened more than 350 new care and treatment beds in addition to our existing 2200 care beds in our system. so over 2500 residential care beds. and i want to take another moment to mention the fact there is talk about treatment on demand. there is no wait to ak iss life saving medications, the time to access methadone is less than one day and we have substance

treatment beds available as we speak. in closing these funds will be critical in helping us to expand our programs to address this fentanyl pandemic. and most importantly to save lives. thank you very much and thank you again city attorney for your leadership. [applause] >> tubsinger dr. colfax and of course i want to thank all men and women who work in your department and for your partnership with this lawsuit. as i mentioned before, this would not have been possible but for the partnership of outside council who had expertise in what was going on in litigation around the country. here to represent them is elizabeth from leaf cabraiser. [applause] >> thank you very much, it's an honor to stand here on behalf

of the many outside lawyers and staff members who came together and answered the call of san francisco to partner with i think the best city attorney's office in the country to bring the resources, the experts, the experience of national opioid litigation to the trial here in san francisco. and i cannot mention all of these attorneys and professionals by name, i'll simply mention those who could not be here today, my partner richard highman, jane, pete muchae and alis. they were the four counsel, they were above the water line face of this case.

but they were assisted by many many lawyers and others from the city attorney's office and others. it took and takes an army to mount a case like this and to put on a trial like this, not every city or county can do it, not every city or county would do it. the cost, the risk the challenges are tremendous and so i'm so proud to say, together with the city attorney's office, we won a trial victory the first of its kind in opioid nationally and because of that, we were able to negotiate a settlement that brings much needed money and resources to san francisco on a schedule that is accelerated more quickly than the national settlement. but there is one thing that needs to be said while we are

celebrating locally, this trial and this settlement has a ripple affect. and the ripple affect is that because of the judgment rendered by the federal court, defendants came more quickly to the national negotiating table and this outcome in san francisco catlized a new set of settlement, with walgreens, with wal-mart and with cvs that together when they become affective, will generate additional 18 billion dollars nationwide to help us fight the opioids epidemic. and i just got called out for using the word celebrate, and i think that's fair. we're not celebrating anything today, except an opportunity that because san francisco

stood up and fought, we now have the funding that is so needed to continue the fight against opioids, it's the fight for the lives of the people and county of san francisco and is a fight which of necessity, not necessity of our making continue for every day of the rest of our lives. those of us standing here who are lawyers in the opioids litigation, will be continuing this bat sxl this fight in every jurisdiction in every court where we can and we will not give up until we have done everything that we can do as lawyers to join in this fight. but this is a fight that takes city and county services government services, private citizens and i just want you to know today, if you don't know already that the services provoided by the dedicated people of the city and county

of san francisco, are second to none in expertise, dedications, efficiency and resolve that this crisis will not overcome us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, elizabeth and again thank you to all the legal lawyers that stood firm as we fought for justice and for the accountability and resources for our city. our final speaker today, let me say that during the trial, we spoke about the fact that every day at zuckerberg sf general, 25% of the case that's come through of the patients who come through, are coming to us because of their opioid crisis. and on the frontline, we have the chief of emergency medicine

from ccsfg, dr. christopher caller. doctor? [applause] ced >> thank you and good morning, i appreciate everybody here being here for this incredible announcement and i want to thank san francisco city attorney and everybody here from taking this important step and making this happen. my name is chris, i'm the chief of emergency medicine of zuckerberg hospital and trauma center. and i testified about the opioid epidemic and what my experience has been in the emergency department every day and the long term health impact that the opioid epidemic has it. and as much as i recognize very personally that we have faced a pandemic and many other healthcare crisis and challenges, it would be hard for me to describe a greater

challenge that we face and a greater crisis than the opioid epidemic. and so much of it ends up on our city hospital department, and, like many across the state and across the country, and every day, we will see 15-30, 20 cases or more that range from acute overdoses and in some cases that result with loss of life that can be so measurable that it will drive further use if not treated to the long term impacts that we see from opioid use disorder. and what can sometime begin as simple prescription at walgreens, it can snow ball into full blown disorder with lifetime impacts. this is such an incredible important next-step in reinvesting in our community.

and will give us the opportunity to do that and to refocus resources on treatment and prevention of this crisis. thank you to everyone here. our work is not over, we got a lot to go but this is really an important step in this process. thank you. [applause] >> again i want to thank everyone for coming out and every person standing on these steps. i want to say to the press, we'll be around if you want to ask us individual questions, thank do you want a final picture of the group? should we stand in front of the podium. that's a wrap for today but thank you for being here and the fight continues. thank you. [applause]

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