Ongoing fentanyl crisis in Orange County, California due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl
The fentanyl epidemic has been impacting Orange County as mortality rates continue to increase, and Orange County allocates funding for drug and prevention programs to mitigate the issue. Graphic by SUKHMAN SAHOTA, Art Director
In recent years, a fentanyl crisis that has been affecting Orange County residents has only worsened.
According to a grand jury report by the County of Orange, a public safety alert from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) affirms, “a fatal dose of fentanyl is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.” Nationally, about 70% of drug-related deaths are primarily due to fentanyl, and fentanyl overdose death rates have increased in 2020 by 215.8%.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that can be medically prescribed on a few specific occasions for individuals with a terminal illness related to cancer or those who experience tremendous pain. However, fentanyl can also be illicitly manufactured, misused and misregulated — a primary cause of the rise in fentanyl overdoses and deaths.
Marc Fleming, a professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy at Chapman University’s School of Pharmacy, shares more about the potency of fentanyl.
“One of the things most people misunderstand is that if you cut off supply, people don’t all of a sudden lose their dependency,” Fleming said. “They’re dependent. They will go into withdrawal without the opioid. So there, I think there’s an idea from maybe law enforcement or you know, society at large, like, ‘okay, let’s stop this,’ and then these people will magically be better. They won’t need it, and that’s not the truth. So you cut off one supply, now I have to go get it on the street and at that point, I really don’t care what’s in it, where I’m getting it, how much it costs because I will need it. Otherwise, I go into withdrawal.”
“One of the things most people misunderstand is that if you cut off supply, people don’t all of a sudden lose their dependency. They’re dependent. They will go into withdrawal without the opioid.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Intervention (CDC), fentanyl is “50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.” Fentanyl’s potency is one of the primary concerns contributing to the opioid epidemic.
“Opioid overdoses rose sharply in 2020 with an 86.9% increase from 2019,” according to the Orange Health Care Agency.
Fentanyl has become one of the most prolific opioids, with a 45% increase in opioid-related deaths from 2019 to 2020.
The DEA Intelligence Report states that illicit fentanyl is circulated in illegal drug markets and smuggled from countries such as Mexico, China and India as a powder and unregistered pressed pills. Illicit fentanyl can be regulated in unclean, contaminated environments and often mixed with other drugs, such as heroin and methamphetamine, stuffed as pills to resemble medical-grade fentanyl.
“There is no safe source; you don’t trust anyone with these drugs that you’re just buying from drug dealers,” Fleming said. “They could even be friends and unknowingly supply you with drugs laced with fentanyl. And, I think that’s why people need to be careful and understanding like you just don’t do it.”
“There is no safe source; you don’t trust anyone with these drugs that you’re just buying from drug dealers. They could even be friends and unknowingly supply you with drugs laced with fentanyl. And, I think that’s why people need to be careful and understanding like you just don’t do it.”
The risk of an illicit fentanyl overdose has also affected the youth.
According to the University of California, Los Angeles Health, in early 2021, “there was a sharp increase with 954 deaths rising to 1,146 deaths in early 2021.”
Ryan Joshi, a junior mathematics major at Chapman, expresses his sentiment on education in spreading awareness of the potency of fentanyl.
“In my 14 years of taking science classes, I don’t think I learned about fentanyl in any of my science classes,” Joshi told The Panther. “I suppose because I learned about some other drugs and how they work, and I feel like certain drugs are too taboo for science classes. And if I were to become a doctor, then I would learn about it.”
Education on substance abuse and drug prevention are ways to reduce the risks of fentanyl overdose and addiction.
In Orange County, OC Board of Supervisor Chairman Donald P. Wagner recently allocated $1.7 million to the Orange County’s Sheriff program and their substance use, prevention and narcotics programs to address the recent fentanyl epidemic. Approximately $1.3 million of the funding will go towards drug prevention activities, such as Above the Influence, a 6-week program where 5th and 6th graders can be equipped with tools to prevent substance abuse and drug use disorders. The remaining funds will go towards narcotic trafficking, firearms and other contraband in the county.
Desiree Crevecoeur-MacPhail, an instructional assistant professor of psychology at Crean College of Health and Behavioral Services at Chapman University, told The Panther what advice she has for mitigating the fentanyl overdose crisis in Orange County.
“The best thing Orange County can do is get information out about fentanyl and how quickly it can cause a fatal overdose and (also) educate people that fentanyl is everywhere in about every illicit drug,” Crevecoeur-MacPhail said.
“The best thing Orange County can do is get information out about fentanyl and how quickly it can cause a fatal overdose and (also) educate people that fentanyl is everywhere in about every illicit drug.”