https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/15/drug-users-advocate-dead-of-overdose/

Activist behind ‘Downtown is for drug users’ campaign dies of overdose

Nova Schultz hung posters with the slogan around downtown and formed a coalition of like-minded activists. They died Oct. 30.

Published Apr. 15, 2025 • 6:00am

San Francisco was in the middle of a political dogfight over the deadly fentanyl epidemic when drug activist Nova Schultz entered the public eye in the summer of 2023.

People were dying of overdoses at a record rate. Drug markets engulfed many downtown sidewalks. And for the first time in years, police were arresting people for using drugs after a crackdown began in the spring.

By Aug. 31 of that year, International Overdose Awareness Day, the city’s ideological factions were fuming over the crisis. That day, Schultz stood on the steps of City Hall, flanked by progressive politicians and nonprofit leaders, holding a homemade sign.

“Downtown is for drug users,” it read.

Images of the placard immediately went viral. Tenderloin leaders and online critics seethed over the message. But Schultz, always a provocateur, pressed on, hanging posters with the slogan around downtown and forming a coalition of like-minded activists, the Drug User Liberation Collective.

A protester with teal hair and sunglasses holds a cardboard sign that reads "DOWNTOWN is for DRUG USERS." Another colorful sign in the background reads "NARCAN SAVES LIVES."

Nova Schultz holds up a sign that says “Downtown is for drug users” on the steps of City Hall during International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31, 2023. | Thomas Hawk

Schultz, who used they/them pronouns, said they hoped to sway the city from its shift to anti-drug policies. Ultimately, the opposite happened.

City leaders have since introduced a slew of drug enforcement measures. And on Oct. 30, at age 42, Schultz fatally overdosed on methamphetamine, anti-anxiety meds, and three types of fentanyl in their apartment at Sacramento and Polk streets, according to the medical examiner’s office.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5710879&forum_id=2#48849071)

I thought all the activists died lol

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5710879&forum_id=2#48849131)