Los Angeles County substance abuse experts reported encouraging data this week, indicating fentanyl-related deaths, which increased exponentially over a six-year span, might be approaching “a plateau,” according to an L.A. County Public Health report.
Santa Clarita officials Tuesday reported a significant decline in fentanyl-overdose deaths locally. The city undertook a local campaign with the Sheriff’s Department to address the issue after the Santa Clarita Valley area reported seeing nearly three dozen in 2022, with more than 30 of them happening within the city.
“Accidental fentanyl overdose and poisoning deaths in (L.A. County) skyrocketed by 1,652% from 109 in 2016 to 1,910 in 2022,” according to the Public Health report issued Monday. “However, this increase rate slowed significantly in 2023, with only a 3% increase to 1,970 deaths.”
In the city of Santa Clarita, after seeing 33 deaths attributed to fentanyl in 2022, there were 19 in 2023, according to data shared by Carrie Lujan, director of communications for the city of Santa Clarita, in an email sent Tuesday. This year to date, there have been 11 that are suspected to be related to the drug.
This data was reviewed by Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control as part of an annual update on overdoses and poisonings across the county related to fentanyl, according to county officials.
“The plateauing of drug-related overdoses and poisoning deaths is a positive trend reversal, but I’m focused on the finding that over 3,000 lives were lost to addiction last year,” 5th District L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement Tuesday via email. “We need to continue building our county’s infrastructure and ability to provide addiction rehabilitation to those who cannot afford recovery help. We also need to do more to serve those suffering from substance use and mental illness. We still have a long road ahead.”
Officials were also encouraged by the overall reduction in overdose deaths, the first time such a reduction has been seen in the county in 10 years — a time period that had seen a 300% increase in such incidents, according to the report.
There were 3,220 in 2022 and 3,092 — a little more than eight per day on average — in 2023. Fentanyl is easily the biggest problem, with it being attributed to about 64% of those deaths.
The report also breaks down the addiction rates by socioeconomics and race.
“Black populations are disproportionately represented in overdose and poisoning deaths, whereas Latinx and white populations represent the highest raw numbers of fatalities, respectively,” according to the county’s data. “This was the first year in which fentanyl-related Latinx overdose and poisoning numbers rose above that of white populations.”
After seeing the number of overdose deaths from the drug spike, city officials worked with members of the SCV Sheriff’s Station’s Juvenile Intervention Team to raise awareness and, in July 2022, the LASD formed a task force that started prosecuting the crimes federally.
“(Overdose Response Task Force) investigations seem to be making a positive impact on the overdose epidemic,” wrote Lt. Bobby Dean, who leads the unit, in an email Tuesday. “Although we are a small team of investigators, the dedication, work ethic and investigative ability of the team has generated multiple convictions with several more cases in various stages of federal prosecution.”
The idea is to bring longer sentences through their work to deter future sales and severely disrupt organizations that distribute lethal narcotics, he added.
He also said overdoses within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s reporting districts are down 25% this year through July 20 compared to the same time as 2023.
The result of the team’s work so far has included two local cases linked to three of the local deaths in 2022.
Dominick Alvarado was sentenced in May for federal charges after taking a plea deal whereby the Department of Justice agreed not to seek more than 12 years at sentencing.
Alvarado was given a 14-year, eight-month sentence for selling the fentanyl that led to the deaths of Alyssa Dies and Cameron Kouleyan in July 2022.
Skylar Mitchell is expected to be sentenced in October on a single federal charge that she sold the fentanyl that led to the death of Jax Markley, a Valencia resident. Her plea deal states Mitchell will not ask the judge for a sentence of less than 10 years.
Members of the local mental health community have created a website that offers links to free and low-cost mental health resources: bethedifferencescv.org.
