Experts Point Out Increasing Overdose Concerns in Santa Cruz County

2020 was a terrible year for most people. Although it’s looking as if 2021 will be a better year in terms of COVID-19, the details emerging that concern the ‘standard’ health issues we all have to face make for grim reading.

In Santa Cruz in 2019 there were, thankfully, only three overdoses from fentanyl – an opioid that is fifty times stronger than heroin and eighty times stronger than morphine. The latest figures released showed that in 2020, that number doubled to six.

Both Opioid-related and Cocaine-related Overdose Deaths in Santa Cruz County Are on the Rise

There was an increase in cocaine-related overdoses too, which increased from three in 2019 to five in 2020. It is not all bad news, though – there was a drop in methamphetamine overdoses in the county which fell from 17 in 2019 to eight in 2020.

The rise in fentanyl and cocaine-related deaths is indeed troubling, and it is hoped that both increases are not the setting of a trend in Santa Cruz County that will continue throughout 2021.

“The data is very concerning. It’s a national trend,” said Jen Hastings, the medical lead at SafeRx who are the coalition behind the report indicating these statistics. “Fentanyl rose in frequency of deaths and being involved in deaths on the east coast maybe two years ago. It has finally arrived and we knew this moment would come.”

Substance Abuse Often Starts Because of Societal Issues, or the Prescription of Opioid Painkillers

UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus Craig Reinarman – a drug addiction expert – has stated his findings that any increase in substance use disorder and overdose deaths can be related to interconnected societal issues. Dissatisfaction with one’s own life often leads to alcohol or substance abuse, as people seek an escape from their normal existence.

People may be prescribed opioids initially for chronic pain relief, but once the prescribed drugs are withdrawn, people seek other means of obtaining opioids illegally. This leads them to come into contact with uncontrolled substances, which means they could be buying fentanyl when they are being told that they are buying heroin. The results are often fatal.

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