The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this week to authorize funds for opioid blockers, such as Narcan, for Orange County school districts.
Supervisor Don Wagner initiated the plan with an allocation of $120,000. Of the lump sum, $20,000 will go to each school district within his supervisorial 3rd district—encompassing Orange, Tustin, Villa Park, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, and most of Irvine.
“The threat fentanyl poses to our communities is expanding,” Wagner said during the meeting on Dec. 20. “[First responders] are often not the first on the scene.”
What started out as a proposal just for Wagner’s district, led to an authorization for all supervisors to take the same initiative if they choose to.
Supervisor Katrina Foley said she was supportive of the action, but said she would like the county’s health care agency to fund such on an ongoing basis.
“One time providing of … Narcan nasal sprays is really not going to be sufficient over time. There are expiration issues,” she said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer spoke at the meeting of actions his office has taken to tackle the crisis.
Many deaths among the youth are from poisonings, not overdoses, he said.
According to Spitzer, some teenagers have purchased drugs such as Xanax, Percocet, or Oxycontin laced with fentanyl and manufactured in China. He said fentanyl is being smuggled into the United States in large quantities across the Mexico border.
“The Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies have done an outstanding job in terms of intervention, but it’s getting through, and our kids are dying,” he said.
Spitzer also blamed California laws for preventing proper prosecution of drug dealers in the state.
Because of such laws, he said, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a drug dealer knew the substance they furnished resulting in a death contained fentanyl.
Under federal law, he said, it’s only required to prove fentanyl was involved, allowing prosecutors to issue sentences of 20 years to life for drug dealers.
“Because state law is so deficient, I have now designated a full-time prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and she is prosecuting these crimes, through federal law,” Spitzer said.
Spitzer told The Epoch Times the governor’s office should be doing more to prevent these crimes.
“The governor … called a special session, and he should be demanding a group of bills relating to fentanyl prevention and prosecution, but he’s not,” he said. “I’m very upset at the state Legislature. They’re not doing nearly enough to fight the fentanyl epidemic.”
Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Don Barnes presented statistics regarding fentanyl-related poisonings and overdoses during the meeting.
According to Barnes, fentanyl is the leading cause of death in Orange County for those 17 and under.
“More than traffic collisions, more than accidents, more than suicide, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death amongst our youth in Orange County,” he said.
Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more than heroin.
Naloxone, the official name for “Narcan,” blocks the impacts of fentanyl on the neurological system.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, in 2014 only 4 percent of drug-related deaths nationally were due to fentanyl.
Currently, 70 percent of drug-related deaths nationwide can be attributed to opioids, more specifically fentanyl, officials said.
For Orange County, there has been a 1,800 percent increase in fentanyl-related deaths since 2016.
“Two-thirds of drug-related deaths happening in our country can be attributed to opioids. … We have to act quick, and we have to act now,” Barnes said.
Spitzer announced a new policy in November 2021 allowing Orange County prosecutors to “charge convicted drug dealers with murder if they manufacture or sell drugs, including fentanyl, and someone dies as a result,” according to an October press release from the district attorney’s office (pdf).
