A year ago, Clark County health officials issued a dire warning.
“Anyone who uses powdered drugs or takes pills that were not given to them by a pharmacy should assume they contain fentanyl,” said Dr. Alan Melnick, the county’s health officer and public health director. “Drugs purchased online, from friends, or from regular dealers could be deadly. There’s no way to know how much fentanyl is in a drug or if it’s evenly distributed throughout the batch.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, 51 deaths in Clark County were attributed to fentanyl overdose; nationally, 71,000 deaths were attributed to synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.
Articles last week in The Columbian put a local face to the issue. One focused on a local man who is recovering from fentanyl addiction and has been sober for nine months; another detailed addiction services that are available in the area.
As the series notes, two years ago heroin was the most common opioid in Clark County; now, it has largely been replaced by fentanyl. An opioid user here is four times more likely to use fentanyl than heroin, experts say.
Several facts should be known about combating this scourge:
- In a report about opioid use, the Congressional Budget Office determined: “Mexico is the primary source of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is made from precursor chemicals that are largely purchased from China.”
Critics blame a lack of border security for allowing fentanyl to be transported into this country. The CDC reports: “While Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States, India is emerging as a source for finished fentanyl powder and fentanyl precursor chemicals.”
- The budget for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is $15.3 billion for the fiscal year that started in October — an increase of 13 percent over two years ago.
- In fiscal year 2022, border security made more than 2 million apprehensions along the Mexico border, the highest total ever recorded.
Despite those efforts, the danger of fentanyl continues to grow. And it continues to play havoc with our communities.
Last week, a Clark County sheriff’s deputy arrested a man after finding what was described as a large quantity of fentanyl hidden in his underwear during a stolen vehicle investigation in Orchards. On Wednesday, the Centralia Police Department arrested a man found with 340,000 suspected fentanyl pills. Last month, a Yakima man was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing 77,000 fentanyl pills with the intent to distribute.
Clearly, supply is being driven by demand. Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, has said: “Fentanyl is everywhere. From large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison. We must take every opportunity to spread the word to prevent fentanyl-related overdose death and poisonings from claiming scores of American lives every day.”
A combination of improved enforcement and widespread information is required to slow the spread of fentanyl use. So is a continued effort to regulate the use of legal opioids, which often serve as a gateway to stronger drugs.
Fentanyl poses a crisis that requires a multipronged approach from local leaders to the federal government.
