Adverts sprouting up around San Francisco are demanding local leaders do more to address the city's ongoing fentanyl epidemic.

Plastered throughout the Democratic stronghold's most drug-ridden neighborhoods, the ads are meant to upset - and contain and statements that criticize officials for 'normalizing our fentanyl crisis.'

Pointed slogans intended to lambaste the lukewarm response - which has left citizens to navigate a mess of open-air drug markets and tent encampments - include 'SF enables drug use but not recovery', and the sarcastic 'That's Fentalife'.

Others tell fed-up citizens 'it's time to stop normalizing our fentanyl crisis,' and contain QR codes that take viewers to a page where they can send emails to Mayor Breed and the city's Board of Supervisors.

The campaign comes from the relatively new advocacy group TogetherSF Action, which seeks to stoke a more pronounced course of action from Breed and those tasked with creating the Bay Area locale's legislation to address the crisis - which has snuffed out nearly double the lives claimed by COVID-19 in

'We want people to stop looking the other way.

We have to confront this problem if we're gonna solve it,' TogetherSF Action Director Kanishka Cheng told The San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, calling the campaign a wake-up call for the public.

'We have to shock people into action to realize this is actually not normal,' he added. 'It's not OK, and we can do better. 

'The people in distress on our streets deserve better.'

Such sentiments were what spurred Cheng and several other like-minded San Franciscans to start the group late last year, following a string of failed experiments from the city's notoriously lenient government.

Unsuccessful stints saw civic staffers hand out alcohol and tobacco to homeless and drug-addicted residents in hard-hit neighborhoods such as Tenderloin and SoMa, two of three sites where the procession of posters were put up this week.

With this new effort, Cheng and others hope to enflame already existing embers of outrage that have smoldered for the past few years, as a simple stroll through the city's streets continues to incite fear in the hearts of residents.

Speaking to the Chronicle, the director - who started TogetherSF Action as offshoot of a nonprofit formed in 2020 - explained how he believes the city's current course of action has actually enabled drug use instead of quelling it.

'There's a lot of focus on the outreach and overdose prevention side and much less of a focus on converting people into recovery and into treatment,' Cheng said, citing the city's introduction of a meth sobering center nearly a year ago, as well as 350 behavioral health beds over the past several years.

'That's really what we're advocating for.

We want to restore more than a heartbeat — we want to restore people's lives.'

Called TogetherSF, the advocacy group's presiding nonprofit is also aimed at boosting civic engagement among those disaffected by San Francisco politics, particularly by policies of appeasement seen under Breed since the pandemic.

She and other San Francisco legislators are responsible for policies that have provided beds for roughly 2,550 disenfranchised residents, which send inhabitants back on the streets after they get cleaned up.

As these sites continue to eat up crucial taxpayer dollars comprising the city's budget, Cheng and other members want the city to pay for vans to pick up drug users to take them to get treatment - 24 hours a day.

Through their recent campaign - which comes on the heels of other adverts slamming San Francisco's lax methods - TogetherSF Action hopes to beseech the city to add more residential drug treatment beds, and offer more drug-free recovery options.

At the sobering spots, visitors are regularly given prescription-strength medications, ideally to help wean them off whatever they had been using prior. 

However, with the continued abundance of vagrants, that strategy has so far fallen flat - an occurrence the group wants to rub in the face of Breed and other officials with the new ads.

Last year, citizens fed up with the state of their city - more than 70,730 people out of roughly 118,000 citizens - voted to oust woke District Attorney Chesa Boudin, whose anti-incarceration policies have been widely panned as causing the ongoing crisis.

He was originally elected on a platform of criminal justice reform, but his progressive laws were  widely blamed for rising crime and homelessness in the Bay Area.

He has since been replaced by Brooke Jenkins, 40, who cleaned house after taking her old boss' job, but has also failed to introduce new policies to deter repeat offenders.

During Boudin's time in office, 'smash-and-grab' robberies became commonplace, with thieves brazenly raiding store shelves in broad daylight, only to avoid charges thanks to Boudin's lax policies.

Such robberies have forced stores across the city to close down to avoid being victimized in the premeditated - and often coordinated - strikes.

Finally local business groups funded the recall campaign against Boudin, accusing him of not doing enough to keep citizens safe and introducing policies that allow repeat offenders to commit crimes without fear of incarceration.

But Boudin and his supporters claimed that the recall was a Republican effort designed to undermine his progressive-led reforms, which has led increased crime seen during the pandemic to continue to persist.

'They created an electoral dynamic where we were literally shadowboxing,' Boudin said following the vote.  'This is a Republican- and police union-led playbook to undermine and attack progressive prosecutors who have been winning elections across the country.

'The playbook involves delegitimizing and fear-mongering and recalling.

It's a tactic being used by folks who are increasingly unable to prevail in elections when they put forward their views about public safety and justice.'

As for Breed, her office responded to the new assortment of ads Tuesday with a vague statement that seemed somewhat receptive to the demands TogetherSF Action are making.

'The underlying asks are generally in line with what the Mayor has already been pursuing to increase police staffing, disrupt open-air drug markets, add more treatment beds, and increase street outreach,' Breed's office said. 

'These will be a key focus in her upcoming budget.'

The mayor will introduce a proposal for those finances in June.

A rare flag flown from a polar sledge used to hunt for survivors of Captain Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition has been saved for the nation thanks to a campaign backed by Michael Palin and Dan Snow.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) launched a last-ditch campaign to raise the £120,000 needed to stop the Kellet sledge flag from passing into the hands of an overseas private collector.

It succeeded thanks to £98,170 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £40,000 from the Art Fund, with match-funding from the NMRN enabling the museum to buy the flag and put it on display at its sites in Hartlepool, Portsmouth and Belfast.

Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay had placed a temporary export bar on the flag in September 2022.

The flag was owned by 19th century Irish naval officer Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett and flown during the third of a series of expeditions from 1852 to 1854 to look for survivors, or evidence of bodies, after Franklin's expedition.

A NMRN spokeswoman said: "Mystery surrounding the fate of the Franklin expedition and the 129 crew ignited public debate and intrigue for decades until the discovery of his two ships, HMS Erebus in 2014 and HMS Terror in 2016.

"Franklin's failed expedition takes on a symbolic place within Arctic exploration, especially within the British Isles and Canada, leading to the successful mapping of the Canadian archipelago and northern mainland coastline."

Professor Dominic Tweddle, NMRN director general, said: "Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett's sledge flag and Franklin's expedition represent courage and fortitude in the face of adversity - core elements of our national identity that echo through our history.

"They also reflect the British and global obsession with finding and navigating the Northwest Passage, as well as the Royal Navy's role in expedition and exploration from Captain Cook to Darwin and HMS Beagle, to HMS Challenger in 1872, and continuing today with HMS Protector - the ice patrol ship in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere."

He added: "The National Museum is proud to have stepped forward to save the Kellett flag from being exported overseas and to continue our work linking navy to nation."

Measuring 595 by 885mm within a frame of 710 by 995mm, the flag is in a fragile condition and is being assessed by the museum's conservation team for recommended treatment.

NMRN conservator Rachel Trembath said: "The flag will be sent to a specialist textile conservator, who will remove the metal pins securing it to the backboard. It will need to be stabilised and issues particularly around the fragile right-hand edge will be addressed.

"The decision to clean the flag will have to balance the long-term preservation needs with the historical significance of the staining and ingrained dirt.

The flag will undergo testing for light sensitivity so we can display it safely."

The flag was made from silk in a rich green colour with an Irish harp embroidered in golden thread to reflect Kellett's Irish heritage.

The museum spokeswoman said: "The green colour has faded over time due to exposure to light, but the flag remains in fairly good condition with a small crudely sewn repair that was likely done by a member of the search party whilst on the ice.

"The maker is unknown but the motto Auxilium Ab Alto translates to Help From Above."

Lord Parkinson said: "I am delighted that this flag - an important link with our past, and a symbol of courage and curiosity - has been saved for the nation."

"The export bar system and a tireless fundraising campaign spearheaded by The National Museum of the Royal Navy means this inspiring item will now be on public display for generations to come."