Enough fentanyl to kill San Francisco: the new wave of the opioid crisis sweeping California

Deaths from fentanyl overdoses have jumped by more than 2,100% in five years as the powerful drug has flooded the state

When San Francisco police seized seven kilos of powder-filled baggies containing the deadly opioid fentanyl last week, the city's police chief warned the bust contained enough lethal overdoses to wipe out San Francisco's population four times over".

But drug addiction experts say the haul may represent just a tiny fraction of the massive volume of the powerful synthetic drug that is flooding California, after being mostly an east coast phenomenon for years.