By Escondido Times-Advocate
It’s a story out of horror fiction. A 10-year old girl who becomes addicted to painkillers after she suffers a broken limb. What adds the true element of horror is that the preteen asked a friend to break her foot so she would be prescribed the drug.
This and other stories came out on Friday when 50th District Congressman Darrell Issa addressed a Fentanyl Policy Roundtable that included county, state, and federal officials, including Escondido Mayor Paul McNamara who co-hosted it and 5th District Supervisor Jim Desmond, who organized it.
The roundtable happened at the County Operations Center in San Diego.
Also in the room were city level elected officials from around the county. They included representatives of DEA Narcotics Task Force 10, Homeland Security Investigators, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, medical professionals and San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan.
After the roundtable, Desmond said, “One of the biggest takeaways I had from the discussions is it’s closer than most people know. It’s in our schools, it’s touching our friends and families, no matter the age. Last year, the leading cause of death in the United States for 18-45-year-olds was fentanyl.”
The supervisor added, “It’s time we find a solution, which is why I wanted to bring different entities into the same room to discuss ways we can make a difference. Many interesting ideas were discussed including, increased border security, contact tracing for individuals who are given fentanyl, and harsher penalties for dealers. We will now take this information and try and come up with purposeful legislation to combat this growing problem.”
Issa outlined his strategies and solutions to address the nation’s worsening fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl is a factor in more than half of all overdose deaths, and fatally poisons someone every eight minutes.
After the meeting Issa commented, “Fentanyl is not a new danger. But the deadly threat it poses has now reached every corner of our country and no community is being spared.” He added, “Today’s conversation was both informative and emotional, and highlighted just how monumental the fentanyl challenge is for all of us.”
The representatives shared information, exchanged ideas, and coordinated actions to combat the fentanyl crisis.
Mayor McNamara commented that the roundtable “was a real eye-opener.” Escondido Police Chief Ed Varso prepared him with some background information before the roundtable.
“Which demonstrated that like the rest of the county, Fentanyl use is growing in our community,” said the mayor. “One of his points was that on the prevention side we are doing fairly well at the middle school and high school level, but there is a funding gap at the elementary school level.”
He added, “That point was emphasized at today’s [Friday’s] meeting, when they stated that a very vulnerable age group was from 8 to 11. Candidly, I found it almost unbelievable that a child would be exposed that young, but after listening to how it is disguised, etc., I left the meeting a believer.”
McNamara volunteered to serve on a subcommittee being coordinated by Cindy Cipriani who is senior mgt counsel/outreach director for the U.S. Attorney and Co-chair of the SD Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force.
“As you might imagine, the meeting produced some tasks which are going to be worked on. One of the take-aways was that we need to work regionally on this issue,” said the mayor.
Fentanyl overdose deaths in 2021 exceeded 700 and could continue to grow in 2022 without a greater awareness and stronger policies. In the late 1980’s, San Diego had the dubious distinction of being the Crystal Methamphetamine capital of the world.
Issa commented, “At the federal level, we are taking action and developing the legal framework that simply does not exist at this time. But we must also make clear that President Biden’s policy of open borders has meant open access to fentanyl – with unprecedented deadly results.”
Source: https://www.times-advocate.com/articles/fentanyl-epidemic-reaches-down-to-lower-grades/