Local News

A sudden, steep rise
Young people in Santa Cruz are dying in a wave of fentanyl-laced street drugs in never-before-seen numbers. Between Jan. 2020 and Sept. 2021, four teens and 10 people in their twenties died—mostly in private homes spread all around the county. Since September, families report several more teen/young adult deaths as yet uncompiled by the county. Though that number is still dwarfed by the number of middle-aged, mostly white male victims, it is an alarming and steep rise from a time when fentanyl was only an issue for hardcore users.

“When we started in 2015, the majority of the opioid epidemic was prescription-related opioids, so that was somewhat of a more manageable problem,” says Rita Hewitt, Program Manager of SafeRx, which partners with the County to address addiction and treatment.

Hewitt, who has lost four friends to the current epidemic, says that methamphetamines were a bigger problem in the past, but epidemiologists saw the wave coming, and now that wave is cresting. The combination of isolation caused by the pandemic, inadequate mental health resources for young people, and sudden availability of cheap narcotics flooding in from Mexico is causing drug treatment whiplash for everyone involved in policy in our county, from the sheriff’s department to treatment counswelors.

What’s going on with our kids?
The biggest drug use issues seen in kids are with what they perceive as prescription medications. They are often more casual about these drugs than they would be about a perceived street drug like heroin. They see their parents taking prescriptions, and know that doctors prescribe them. But recently the County of Sacramento found that 99% of the realistic-looking prescription meds for sale on the street were counterfeit, and 99% of them contained fentanyl no matter how they were marked.

Some young people have always sought out drugs as pleasure activities, but mental health professionals say that the pandemic has led to a rise in depression and anxiety that is going untreated. Without access to treatment, or because they are trying to hide it from their families, many of the young people harmed by fentanyl are seeking well-known pharmaceuticals like Xanax.

Sophie Véniel, whose young adult son died early this year, says that we need a change of language.

“All the media are calling it an overdose,” she points out. “So [people think], it’s OK, this is a junkie, he got an overdose, he deserved it. He knew what he was getting into. But that’s not what’s going on. It’s poison that’s added.”

Véniel’s son, who suffered from anxiety but was given inadequate care by his local health provider when he sought help, took half a Xanax that he bought from a dealer. The pill looked exactly like the official ones from the pharmacy.

But it was laced with poison: a lethal dose of fentanyl.

He died in his sleep, with no one to notice that he was unresponsive.

Why are they killing their customers?
This is the question that everyone immediately asks about the Mexican drug cartels sending lethal drugs across the border. But the answer is, the deaths are only a byproduct of a marketing decision.

Fentanyl is very cheap to make. It also creates an instant high and almost immediate addiction. And the doses are so small, one baggie of the drug is enough to kill every resident of Santa Cruz County. Last year the DEA seized enough fentanyl to kill every American. It is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine and a dose the size of a grain of sand can be fatal.

It’s a cold-blooded business decision to spike pills with fentanyl: The customers who don’t die get hooked on a cheap and plentiful drug, and they want more.

What are local authorities doing about it?
No one is sitting idly by, it turns out. Top on the list was to prevent deaths as quickly as possible, and that means that every first responder, along with many others from school nurses to pharmacies, are supplied with naloxone, the opioid reversal medication that can save lives with a squirt into the nose.

“If it were not for Narcan, [the death rate] would be much higher,” says Joyce Blaschke of the Santa Cruz Police Department. “SCPD Officers, SCFD and medics have been able to reverse the overdose by administering naloxone.”

The County Sheriff is most often the first responder, and they’ve been busy around the county not only saving lives, but coordinating with others to educate residents about the risks and the appropriate use of Narcan. County Health Services Agency reports 199 overdoses reversed using Narcan from January through August, 2021.
“I’m working with the schools to get cases [of Narcan] on campus there,” says Hewit, of SafeRX. She hopes that soon students will be able to request the medication at school, but in the meantime, she says that SafeRx and she personally will get it to anyone who thinks they might need it. The state now requires that all pharmacies give out Narcan on request.

On top of treatment, authorities are stepping up monitoring the pipelines getting the drugs into the community, and prosecuting more aggressively. If someone provides a substance containing fentanyl to someone who dies as a result, the provider can be charged with murder, as a teen was recently in San Jose.

What are the myths we need to watch out for?
Despite rumors, there are currently no documented cases of fentanyl-laced marijuana sold to unsuspecting customers. Although there have been overdoses due to this mode of ingestion, they all appeared to be created by the consumer.
There are no “safe sources” of drugs on the black market. Anti-anxiety and pain pill prescriptions should be filled only at pharmacies.

You can’t build up a tolerance to lethal doses of fentanyl. Although committed opioid users do not suffer overdoses at the rate of new users, a lethal dose is lethal to anyone.

Fentanyl test strips are highly unreliable and offer a false sense of security. Users should assume that any pill they take contains fentanyl and they are at risk of an overdose.

What more can we do?
Véniel, whose son William, 27, died several weeks ago, says that parents and educators need to open their eyes to how young people are finding out about and accessing these lethal drugs. They no longer have to go out to a dark street corner.
“The deals are made on social media,” she says. “Somebody can show up at your door within 10 minutes. Parents find their child dead in their room.”

Old-fashioned anti-drug programs, says Hewitt, are counterproductive. “I was a D.A.R.E. child in the nineties and we all know that wasn’t an effective method. I think it just comes down to open and honest communication.”

That communication should include factual information presented not as scare tactics or shaming, and a family commitment to being open to questions and discussion.

“We encourage [parents] to not only talk to [children] about the dangers, but come up with a game plan or response if they’re offered narcotics,” says Ashley Keehn of the County Sheriff’s Office.

These days, “Just Say No” is nowhere near enough.

“My son did not want to die, I know that,” Véniel says. “Most of the people who take it don’t want to die. They’re being murdered.”

Recognize an Overdose
Drowsiness, unresponsive, blue lips and fingernails, clammy skin, decreased heart rate.

WHEN IN DOUBT, ADMINISTER NAXOLONE
AND CALL 911.