Community
Opioid Settlement Funds to Target Overdose Prevention: More than $7 million over nine years dedicated to strategies and treatment
San Rafael, CA – Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis updated the Board of Supervisors on March 28 about the state of the local opioid crisis[PDF] and outlined strategies to reduce fatal overdoes in Marin in 2023. This year’s strategies are centered around OD Free Marin, a broad coalition dedicated to reducing the risk of drug overdoses. The coalition coordinates county-wide strategies and includes Marin County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, Public Health, health care providers, schools, and community members.
![Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis updated the Board of Supervisors on March 28 about the state of the local opioid crisis[PDF] and outlined strategies to reduce fatal overdoes in Marin in 2023.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/opioid-settlement-featured-web.jpg)
San Rafael, CA – Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis updated the Board of Supervisors on March 28 about the state of the local opioid crisis[PDF] and outlined strategies to reduce fatal overdoes in Marin in 2023.
This year’s strategies are centered around OD Free Marin, a broad coalition dedicated to reducing the risk of drug overdoses. The coalition coordinates county-wide strategies and includes Marin County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, Public Health, health care providers, schools, and community members.
Willis concluded his presentation with a training on how to use Narcan, a life-saving nasal spray that stops an overdose as it is happening.
OVERDOSES IN MARIN COUNTY:
- Marin County averages one fatal overdose each week.
- Marin overdose deaths doubled in the past three years.
- After cancer and heart disease, accidental drug overdose is the third most common cause of death among Marin residents under age 75.
- Fentanyl, a high potency opioid, is driving the increase in overdoses.
OD Free Marin focuses on community education, overdose prevention, and connecting people with substance use disorders to mental health, recovery and treatment programs. Expanding these programs is part of the initial investment of Marin County’s opioid settlement funds[External].
Marin County will receive $800,000 annually for nine years from settlements with pharmaceutical companies for downplaying the addictive and potentially lethal impacts of prescription opioids. In 2021, Marin joined a nationwide lawsuit[External] against opioid manufacturer Johnson and Johnson and the largest pharmaceutical opioid distributors: McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health. Additional settlements with three pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart — and two additional manufacturers — Allergan and Teva – are still pending.
Prescriptions for opioid painkillers, once the primary contributor to opioid overdoses, have decreased over 300% since 2015 in Marin. OD Free Marin’s work reflects a changing overdose landscape, particularly the increase in deaths due to the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“It’s good that the industry that helped create this crisis is funding some of the solutions,” Willis said. “This money will help us save lives. The crisis is getting worse nationally and in our own backyard.
“It hits home. So many of us have a family member, a friend, or a colleague touched by overdose.”
Those interested in the OD Free Marin initiative are encouraged to:
- Learn how to access free Narcan and training in Marin on the OD Free Marin website.
- Find out more about the Let’s Talk programand other resources for parents/guardians to navigate youth substance abuse.
- Join the OD Free initiative by signing up for one of five Action Teams.
- Subscribe to the OD Free Marin newsletter.
Activism
Community Opposes High Rise Development That Threatens Geoffrey’s Inner Circle
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

By Ken Epstein
An outpouring of community supporters – young, old, jazz lovers, environmentalists and committed Oakland partisans – spoke out at a recent Planning Commission hearing to support Geoffrey Pete and his cultural center – The Inner Circle – an historic Oakland landmark whose future is threatened by a proposed skyscraper that out-of-town-developer Tidewater Capital wants to build in the midst of the city’s Black Arts Movement and Business District (BAMBD).
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.
The speakers argued passionately and persuasively, winning the sympathy of the commissioners, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the Commission unanimously approved the high-rise to be built either as a residential building or office tower on Franklin Street directly behind Geoffrey’s building.
Mr. Pete has said he would appeal the decision to the City Council. He has 10 days after the hearing to file an appeal on the office building. His appeal on the residential tower has already been submitted.
Mr. Pete said the Planning Department still has not published the boundaries of the BAMBD. “Tidewater’s applications and subsequent applications should not be approved until the Planning Department fully acknowledges the existence of the BAMBD,” he said.
“This (proposed) building poses a grave danger to the historic (Inner Circle) building next to it, arguably Oakland’s most meaningful historic building,” Pete said.
“We’re here to advocate for what’s best for the African American district and community that has gotten no representation, no advocacy, as of yet,” he said. “The (commission) is guilty, the City of Oakland is guilty, and Tidewater is guilty.”
One of the first speakers was Gwendolyn Traylor, known as Lady SunRise, who directly addressed the developers.
“With all due to respect to your business, it’s not a need of this community. I would like to ask you to reconsider the location …What is being (promised) here does not add to the healing of this community,” she said.
Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance emphasized that Geoffrey’s Inner Circle is a treasure of Oakland’s history.
“Our first concern is the integrity of the historic district, in particular the former Athenian-Nile Club, now Mr. Pete’s equally historic venue, which has been the location of a great number of important community events,” she said. “It would not be OK with us if the integrity of the building were damaged in any way, no matter how much insurance (the developer bought) because it is very difficult to repair a historic building once it’s damaged.”
The Inner Circle was previously owned and operated by the Athenian-Nile Club, one of the Bay Area’s largest all-white-male exclusive private membership club, where politicians and power brokers closed back-room deals over handshakes and three martini lunches.
Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson pointed out that commissioners and the city’s Planning Department have “acknowledged that you went through the entire design review process without even knowing that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.”
The district was created in 2016 by City Council resolution. “At the heart of the opposition to this building is the desire to further the legacy of local Black entertainment and entrepreneurship exemplified by businesses like Mr. Pete’s … a historical landmark and venue (that serves) thousands of people who listen to jazz and other entertainment and hold weddings, receptions, and memorial services,” said Uncle Bobby.
This development is taking place within a context in which the “Black population in Oakland has decreased rapidly … because of the city’s concentration on building houses that are not affordable for people who currently live in Oakland,” he said.
John Dalrymple of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development said, “This project will result in significant air quality, public health, noise, and traffic impacts. He said the city has not adequately studied the (unmitigated) impacts of this project on the Black Arts Movement and Business District.
“This project is an example of what developers are being allowed to do when they don’t have to follow the law, and they don’t have to be sensitive to our city’s culture and values,” he said. The commission should “send a signal today that we will no longer be a feeding ground for the rich.”
Prominent Oakland businessman Ray Bobbitt told commissioners, “Any decision that you make is a contribution to the systemic process that creates a disproportionate impact on Black people. Please do yourself a favor, (and) rethink this scenario. Give Mr. Pete, who is a leader in our community, an opportunity to set the framework before you make any decision.”
Though the City Council created the BAMBD, the 2016 resolution was never implemented. The district was created to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland’s Black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central historically and currently to Oakland’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses.”
The district was intended to promote Black arts, political movements, enterprises, and culture in the area, and to bring in resources through grants and other funding.
Activism
Community Meeting on Crime and Violence
Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Oakland Technical H.S. Auditorium
300-340 42nd St.
Oakland, CA 94611
For more information, contact District 1 Chief of Staff Seth Steward: ssteward@oaklandca.gov, 510-238-7013.
Bay Area
UniverSoul Circus Opens in Richmond
Described by show organizers as a highly interactive combination of circus arts and theatre that spans musical genres, UniverSoul Circus will feature flipping motorcycles, stilt dancers, Fire Limbo Benders, ancestral carnival characters, clowns, flamboyantly costumed dancers and more “in a celebration of energy.”

By Kathy Chouteau | The Richmond Standard
UniverSoul Circus kicked off its Bay Area run under the Big Top at Hilltop Mall last week with the performances continuing during various times through Sun., June 19.
The UniverSoul Circus is a single ring circus, established in 1994 by Cedric Walker and Calvin “Casual Cal” Dupree, an African American man who had a vision of creating a circus with a large percentage of people of color performing. He began searching for people from all around the world with incredible talents. Richmond police Chief Bisa French and City Manager Shasa Curl were set to be guest ringmasters for the opening night show.
Described by show organizers as a highly interactive combination of circus arts and theatre that spans musical genres, UniverSoul Circus will feature flipping motorcycles, stilt dancers, Fire Limbo Benders, ancestral carnival characters, clowns, flamboyantly costumed dancers and more “in a celebration of energy.”
“Get ready to be amazed and frightened at the terrifying, gravity- defying acrobats on the Wheel of Death or the bold, breathtaking daredevils on the High Wire,” said UniverSoul Circus in a statement about the show.
This season’s theme is, ‘We All Belong,’ according Walker, the circus founder and CEO. “We all belong to one human race. Everyone is coming together, different cultures, different people, a new transcultural fusion, a new generation inclusive and together in a UniverSoul Experience!”
Venue:
Hilltop Mall
2200 Hilltop Mall Rd, Richmond, CA 94806
Showtimes:
Thurs-Fri: 7:00 p.m.
Sat: 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Sun: 11:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m.
Box Office Hours:
Tues: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Wed-Fri: 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Sat: 9:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sun: 9:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Mon: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Memorial Day)
Tickets range from $27.50 to $60 depending on your seat and you can purchase them on Ticketmaster. Visit www.universoulcircus.com for more info.
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