S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Today we're raising awareness about drug overdoses. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. We'll talk about the ways people are getting exposed to and addicted to fentanyl.
S2: You have both people who are unintentionally exposed to fentanyl when they're purchasing other drugs. And then you also have people who are seeking out fentanyl because they've now developed an addiction to this very highly addictive and highly lethal substance.
S1: Plus , the science behind addiction and resources to find help. That's ahead on Midday Edition International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31st. It's a day to remember loved ones lost to drug overdose and to acknowledge the grief of those left behind. It's an experience that's touched so many lives in San Diego and its reach goes across California. So much so , a new state law that goes into effect in 2026 will require all high schools educate students about the dangerous risks of fentanyl use here to help better understand drug addiction and overdose. As Doctor Carla Marion Feld , she's a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego. She is also the medical director of the UC San Diego Substance Treatment and Recovery Program. Doctor Marion Feld , welcome to the show.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: Glad you're here. So tell us a little bit about your work. You have multiple roles.
S2: In addition , I run a training program to train other addiction psychiatrists who will be better able to manage treating people who struggle both with substance abuse problems as well as other primary mental health problems. And then I'm actively involved in several different research studies that look at both the effects of substances on infants and growth from birth through age ten , as well as treatments for substance use disorders like methamphetamine use disorder and opioid use disorder. Wow.
S1: Wow. And you have been in the field of substance abuse and recovery for more than a decade , and your career has really taken you across the US.
S2: And then in around 2013 , the introduction of fentanyl into the heroin drug supply. That really was a more potent and easily transportable and in some ways easier to manufacture substance. That allowed people for a cheaper and easier high once they were already addicted to opioids , but unfortunately , because of its potency , was so much more lethal and so much more easily misused , and resulted in a significant increase in the opioid overdose deaths that we saw. When I came to California in 2016 , methamphetamine use disorder really was still the biggest substance , you know , that was troubling the people here and that people were struggling with. And we've really seen dramatic differences as fentanyl has come to the West Coast. And now as we're seeing a prime area where a lot of fentanyl that's coming across the border is coming through San Diego and on to other places. And unfortunately , it's not just coming through San Diego , but it's also much more readily available , and it's mixed with a lot of the other substances. And so you have both people who are unintentionally exposed to fentanyl when they're purchasing other drugs. And then you also have people who are seeking out fentanyl because they've now developed an addiction to this very highly addictive and highly lethal substance here in San Diego.
S1: Well , you mentioned methamphetamine and fentanyl. So your work covers people with a wide range of substance dependencies. What usually causes the addiction.
S2: The causes of addiction are again , multifactorial , which is to say some people are born with certain genetic vulnerabilities that make it more likely that if they are exposed to a substance , they're going to have problems with it. For a lot of substances , people can be exposed to it a certain number of times before they may develop a problem , and some people may be exposed many times and never develop a problem. We certainly know this to be the case with opioids , and some people get exposed to them frequently for surgeries or for other things , and use them appropriately and never develop a problem. But a portion of people do go on to develop a problem , possibly because they have an underlying genetic vulnerability to this or for other reasons. We also know that social factors and interpersonal , you know , factors such as a person's own personality and traits , as well as their situation make it more or less likely that they might develop a substance use disorder. So there's really a lot of different things that could lead to somebody becoming addicted. You need to have that combination of exposure circumstances and potentially the genetic risks that influence that. We're really seeing this change where many , many people were exposed to opioids , a small percentage of them developed an addiction. And then there's becomes part of these , these sort of social networks of people who are struggling with various aspects of life and sometimes find substances as not necessarily a healthy or adaptive way of coping with their circumstances , but trying to find some way of coping with their circumstances. And so they get exposed and develop these addictions that then cause a whole host of other problems for them , including putting them at risk for overdose and death , and many of the other consequences of substance use.
S1: Um , uh , does one socioeconomic status , um , play a role in any of this or raise the risk factor. Absolutely.
S2: Absolutely. So earlier I mentioned that term , uh , the social determinants of health and social determinants of health are really the things , um , that , that we don't often think of as being necessarily biologically related to somebody perhaps , but that have a huge influence on our health. And we see it in general health care , things such as diabetes or heart disease , but we also see it in , uh , substance use disorder. And these can include someone's socioeconomic status. They can include , you know , poverty. They can include aspects of our lives and the lives of the people around us that influence what we do , what we're exposed to , uh , and make a big impact on , on our long term health care outcomes.
S1:
S2: And in fact , that's where addiction psychiatry , the field I'm in , can really be very helpful because if you only focus on one of those things , you really don't make as much impact in helping the person. So , for example , if somebody has a significant depression and they're using substances , again as a maladaptive way of trying to to feel better , trying to change how they're feeling because it's it's so intolerable to them. If you ignore the depression and only focus on the substance , you're probably not going to do as well as if you also help treat that underlying depression. That sometimes could be the thing that's really driving a lot of that substance use problem. And and vice versa. If you focus only on the depression and ignore the role of the substance and how that person is feeling , again , you're not going to get very far and really helping them do better in the long run Well.
S1: So it sounds like there are multiple issues that have to be addressed.
S2: So when we're talking about opioids , it's typically enough that causes you to lose consciousness and stop breathing. Um , and so that's what we really are worried about oftentimes when we talk about the opioid overdose crisis. But we've seen a number of shifts over the years in terms of deaths related to drug overdoses. And while opioids certainly are potentially quite lethal and are a big driver of the overdose drug epidemic that we're struggling with. What we're seeing now is something we call the fourth wave of that , where it's really this combination of opioids with other substances that's very lethal. In particular , we worry about combination with other depressants , like alcohol or benzodiazepines or other sedatives. That makes it more lethal. But what we're really seeing now that's come to a lot of attention is the role that the combination of opioids with what we might have once called uppers like methamphetamine are doing to people. And so that fourth wave is really the concern we have of these increasing drug overdose deaths with people who have multiple substances in their system , particularly opioids combined with methamphetamine.
S1: Well , tell me more about how people are getting these drugs and becoming addicted. Um , we know that sometimes they are laced in pills and sometimes people unknowingly take them. Tell me more about that.
S2: We were talking earlier about how things have changed over time. And so I think initially in the San Diego area , uh , opioids came here much later than they were impacting other parts of our country on the East Coast and in rural areas in Appalachia and other areas. And so initially , when we were first seeing fentanyl in San Diego , it was as potentially as a contaminant or it was mixed with other drugs , potentially because of all kinds of different reasons , including the high addictive potential and , and sort of driving things like that. But the change was a little bit of a surprise to many people. I remember not long after I moved here hearing about a , I think it was a Labor Day weekend , maybe around six years ago , where several people who thought they were taking methamphetamine overdosed and had opioid overdoses and were actually dying because they were unintentionally exposed to fentanyl. I think that story has largely changed , wherein people either know that there's a significant amount of fentanyl and methamphetamine in both of those drug supplies , or they're intentionally seeking out the fentanyl or that combination of the two drugs. There are some people who find a benefit of combining the drugs , and that does drive some of that behavior. But at the cost of it being potentially more lethal , having that combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl together. Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S1:
S2: Unfortunately , there are a number of different barriers to that ideal access to all of these wonderful treatments there. One of the barriers is just simply insurance and being able to afford them. But there's other problems. Many times there's stigma that people don't understand the treatments or they misunderstand what it's trying to do. And so that prevents people from using things that could otherwise be effective for them , including medications like buprenorphine and methadone that have a lot of data for being helpful when people have access to them and can use them in the right ways , which unfortunately , doesn't always happen. There's also barriers around the number of providers who are able to treat these things. There's a number of barriers because we really don't have a comprehensive system like we ideally should. In an ideal world , somebody should be able to go to their everyday doctor Actor talk about their substance use , have some initial treatment steps be initiated , and then be referred to an appropriate level of care that's integrated and people can go to the right treatments for them , whether that's therapies or groups or living situations , um , addressing their co-occurring mental health problems , addressing their co-occurring medical problems. So there's all kinds of different needs that somebody may have. And in an ideal situation , we would have a system where people can easily access all of the different types of treatments and things that could be helpful for their particular needs. In reality , unfortunately , it's very challenging to move between these systems and connect people with all the right pieces at all the right times , even when insurance and money and other things like that aren't barriers , which of course they are as well.
S1: All right. Lots to consider there. I've been speaking with Doctor Carla Marion Feld. She is a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego. Doctor Marion Feld , thank you so much for joining us.
S2: I appreciate you focusing on this topic. Thank you.
S1: Up next , the work being done to prevent opioid overdoses.
S4: We have thought outside the box and worked with numerous people on the streets to find out from folks what it is they need out there to save their lives. And it was low barrier access to naloxone.
S1: Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. Welcome back to KPBS Midday edition. I'm Jade Hindman. You just heard about the science behind addiction , forms of treatment and the evolution of street drugs. Well , now we take a look at what efforts are happening across the county to prevent overdoses , specifically with opioids. Tara Stamos is the founder and CEO of the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego. Tara , welcome to Midday Edition. Hi.
S4: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
S1: Well , we're glad you're here. So tell us a little bit about what your organization does to prevent overdoses.
S4: We are an organization full of individuals who have lived experience , um , who this movement very deeply impacts. And all of us have come to the table because we're trying to do something different. We are the first and last line of defense out there. So what we have worked really hard to do is provide things that are evidence based and be able to give people what it is they need to be able to be successful with having quality of life. And so we have thought outside the box and worked with numerous people on the streets to find out from folks what it is they need out there to save their life. And it was low barrier access to naloxone. And so in order to do that , we have been able to get vending machines throughout the county of San Diego. Some of our efforts are through a partnership with the County of San Diego and the naloxone distribution program. Some of them are through our organization , through another program we have , which is a safe , uh , syringe service program. We do a lot to make this happen. And we have 16 vending machines around the county that have naloxone and fentanyl test strips for free. Uh , we have distributed almost 100,000 kits of naloxone into the hands of people in San Diego. We have mobile needs based 24 hour access to naloxone. Whether that somebody needs to make a phone call and call us , whether it is somebody who is using and they're going to be using by themselves , they call us. I stay on the phone with them and I'll call the paramedics if they don't respond. Um , we meet people where they're at , and we reduce the stigma. We remind them they matter , and we do what we can to get naloxone into the hands of every person. Everywhere.
S1: Well , how important is naloxone to the opioid crisis ? It's also known as Narcan , right ? Yes.
S4: Um , Narcan is a is a , um , manufacturers name brand. Uh , it's crucial. It is the only thing that reverses an overdose. Uh , so opiates are a central nervous system depressant , and they tell us to stop breathing , and you can slap a person and poke a person all you want. It's not going to make them breathe again. So you need to have something to knock that opiate out of the receptor site. And what that is what naloxone does. It kicks it out of the receptor site and blocks that receptor site so that no opiates going to attach back there for anywhere between 30 and 90 minutes. Uh , we would not be where we are today. Um , in the opioid crisis , if we didn't have naloxone , we would have so many more deaths , it would be exponentially greater. I cautious when we talk about hitting a plateau because it's not a plateau in terms of the people who are being impacted , it's it's because we're , uh , flooding the market with naloxone availability for people that they're able to reduce death rates. And we've got a huge dip in death rates in San Diego County. I think it's one of the larger ones. It is 7 to 8%. This year is the official number. It's at least 100. Fewer people have lost their lives in the county than they did last year , and that's not happening around the rest of the country. That's a huge celebration and victory indeed.
S1: Well , in earlier you mentioned naloxone vending machines.
S4: We hit , uh , every single of the seven official regions of the county we have four of them are the first ever on tribal land in the United States. Those are , um , um , Paula Rincon Viejas and Campo at their health centers or their fire departments. Um , there is another , uh , four machines outside of the jails at Las Colinas , Vista , East Mesa. George Bailey. Um , those four machines are the first ever smart one iPad technology in the United States. Those have the ability to you interact with a four foot iPad on the front of the machine. Uh , and so you don't have to remember your Pin number and you're able to watch a video real time right there. It's a great tool , and we're looking to expand the capabilities of the other machines to be at some point , um , interactive like these ones are. And then the remaining of the the machines are a regular chips and cookie type vending machines. And , but they dispense naloxone and fentanyl test strips that are in bundles of ten. And those ones are located. We have one at Father Joe's downtown that's 24 over seven access. We have them at methadone clinics in Fashion Valley and Oceanside. We have them at Project Aware. It's a criminal justice organization in East County. I think we have them at McAlester , South Bay. They're all over the place. So you can go on our website to SD naloxone.org to find them. Uh , you can go on the county's website and there's a link. You can also go on to uh , HCS dawg and find them or just search up vending machine naloxone San Diego and it should pop up the locations. Mhm.
S1: Well how has the reception been for those. I mean how quickly do you all typically need to refill those machines.
S4: Um so we , it's great. We were able to keep real time tracking of it. So if you go to the machine right now and you push the buttons and you get out your naloxone , I'm going to know about it. If I'm watching my screen for that app , we so we set them at a par so that we're able to go in at a certain percentage and go in and fill them. One at Father Joe's empties quickly , the one at at the methadone clinics. Those empty quickly McAlester. They empty quickly ? We have a team of people who are out all week long filling machines. They stay busy and we have a long list of people who want more , want machines. We did not have enough capacity to provide machines to everybody who wanted them. The people who have not had great feedback were people who didn't know or understand. And it's always about after a conversation with folks that that they end up kind of coming around to understanding that naloxone is not something that gets anybody high. It's not going to enable somebody drug use. Naloxone enables a person to breathe and and make a different , better choice because they're not dead. Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S1: Also I mean , to that point your organization also emphasizes fentanyl education. Oh yeah. What can you tell me about that aspect of it.
S4: So we provide a number of different educational components to our in our program we provide real time evidence based literature. So there are flyers and booklets and um and trainings that we do that talk about the different trends that we're seeing. We look to provide the best avenue for people who are using to use safely so that when , when , and if they do exit that use that they are exiting with minimal consequences. When it comes to health and other things. I'm a person with lived experience. I was a very chaotic drug user for a long time. I was , um , a sex worker. I went to prison , I , I was homeless , and so I've , I've , I've experienced a thing or two. And we really want to make sure that folks have everything they need to stay safe and alive. And so sometimes that looks like sitting down and having a conversation with them about the amount of substance that they're using or drinking water ahead of time , or maybe if they're using 14 times today , how about tomorrow ? They try 12 and we have a drug checking service also. That is a pilot project through , um , a private donation that we had , and UCSD , and we have a Ftir machine that we're able to be out on the streets with , and people can test their sample of drugs on the machine. And then there's a whole educational component that comes with those results. So we let people know that your substance contains these things. These are the possible side effects of these things. This is the way you should not be mixing this drug. And out of the 1000 or so samples that we've tested thus far , we have had so many people pivot and change their use patterns , exit , use , um , stay alive. Like we have a very excellent rate of folks within our program that that are substance users that don't die because they are educated and informed. We also work closely with providers and stakeholders in the community to keep their educational stuff up to date. So Zelazny is a big thing hitting the streets right now.
S1:
S4: It is not , um , approved for human consumption , which also means that there's no antidote for human consumption because it's not FDA approved. And so if , uh , a person is using , um , fentanyl , chances are that now there is xylene in it. We knew it was coming. It's hit the rest of the country. Um , and it kind of were one of the last legs to get it here. But fentanyl , when you think of it , uh , in terms of heroin , is 100 times more potent than heroin. And if a person is going to be using heroin , that heroin is coming from poppy fields that are. And the , um , the drug marketers did not have the supply they needed to meet the demand of people in the United States. And so , pivoting from growing poppies , people moved to manufacturing fentanyl. And in that in that spot , when they started having fentanyl available , people's use patterns changed and they were using much more often because fentanyl stays in your system for less time. And so now I have just moved to a substance that is much more potent , and I'm using it more often. Um , the detox from those things. The effects of those things that chances and for health consequences are much greater. And when you add xylene into it , you're using less fentanyl. It's lasting longer. It's having more of the effects like heroin would. And so that I believe that is like the draw in why folks added it in the first place. And people when you ask them , they're not like , yes , I want to do this , this drug and I want it to have cytosine in it. They don't like the xylene , but it's in a lot of stuff. And we've we've tested out in the streets every 3 to 7 out of every ten samples of fentanyl that we tested , um , over the last few months were positive for xylene. Now , that might be just in a small area and it could have been all one supplier. We don't know those things , but we do know that we only test some people stuff , and if we're seeing it in the sampling , that it's definitely all out there and we can tell by the wounds that we are seeing people experience right now , that it is , um , rampant in our drug supply.
S1: Well , these drugs are known as tranq on the streets , right ? Right.
S4: The combination of the two is known as tranq. Yeah. Of xylene and fentanyl together.
S1:
S4: So they do a thing that's called it nodding out or going out , which is where you kind of , like , pass out. You're like , you're asleep. But they're they're still conscious , but they're kind of just dreaming. And then they wake up and they don't even remember any of that stuff. And then it's they're sick again and they need to use with xylene in it. Um , the xylene makes it so they're not using as much fentanyl so that when they use a substance , they're just kind of out of it , but not completely out of it. The thing with xylene is it's long acting and it's across the whole central nervous system. So an overdose that does include xylene could be problematic to reverse because you've used the naloxone on somebody and it's kicked to the opiates out of the receptor site. So you're breathing. That was shut off from that is back on board. But the rest of your system that is being impacted by the xylene is still really struggling. And so you may have a very shallow breathing rate for a long time. And one of the big concerns with overdoses that are not fatal is the amount of time that an individual experiences without oxygen to the brain. We see a lot of folks who we don't know how long they were non-responsive before we found them , and we see them experiencing more than one overdose over a period of time , and watching their cognitive abilities definitely decrease. And it's it's similar to a traumatic brain injury. You've shut off oxygen to the brain and portions of it die. And so that's a big thing with psilocybin. We've seen people who are smoking it that are having internal wounds in their lungs , all sorts of things. So I might get a scratch , I might have a bug bite. I might have a place where I was injecting. It doesn't have to be a giant , Anything but that area is now going to neckties and dye and it's going to keep dying. And what happens is that small little wound very quickly , since it's open and exposed , is not just that wound anymore. It's now a plethora of bacterial infections that are wreaking havoc and continuing to spread. We've had individuals who have a wound the size of a dime , and within two weeks there it is covering their entire leg. And the the problem that we've seen is that medical providers , while they have received some training and they have some knowledge about it , it's new and they don't know how to always identify it. And if they do , they don't always treat it adequately.
S1: Yeah , it sounds like a nasty drug out there.
S4: And , and we take those names and we add them to a banner that we have to huge living banner that's about 20ft long and it's full. So I think we're starting a new one this year. But we have names all over there. They go on there. We will be doing the Thursday morning at the county admin building is a giant event that's with the county and a number of other stakeholders in the community , where we place flags in the lawn for the number of individuals whose lives have been lost. And we honor them. There's some some speeches that are done. And then on Sunday is the actual International Overdose Awareness Day. And we are doing a , um , memorial vigil at Crown Point in the evening. I think it starts at six and there are a number of other events out there. We also post the Overdose Awareness Day , and that is we take all those names on banners and we write them on backpacks , and we stuff them on backpacks full of different items , and we go out and give those backpacks out to individuals specifically donated in the name of that individual that lost their lives , so that their lives are not lost in vain. And we take those banners to the state capitol , to the federal building. We go to Washington , D.C. , with a trail of truth that there are headstones placed in the in the lawn there. But we really want folks to know that nobody's lives are lost in vain. And , you know , I do trainings. And when I ask folks to raise their hand if they've been impacted by overdose in any capacity , whether it's a neighbor , a friend , somebody they heard about , um , and , and it used to be about a third of the people would raise their hand , and then it got to be about half. And , um , and now we're closer to three quarters of the hands are going up. And I remind folks to look around the room while their hands are still up because they're not alone. We are never going to turn back the tide when it comes to fentanyl or other drugs , and what we have to pay attention to is the why behind it. Why are we seeking to disconnect or to connect ? What's the reason for the demand , and how can we better support people with more effective methods of treatment ? I have a friend who called me just the other day , and she's a colleague that I work with at the county of San Diego , and she called me to tell me that her child is alive today because of the naloxone that she got out of the Vista vending machine. And that is really , um , like we weren't talking about my friend's child dying this week. Instead , we're talking about the lives that we did get to save. And and it's a beautiful thing because it travels seven generations down. These people get to tell a different story about their family , and they get to have a different legacy. And to me , it's worth every moment of it and will continue to push for the right thing. And it's not about politics. It's everybody deserves to have some dignity and be treated with respect.
S1: Well , thank God for you standing in the gap. I've been speaking with Tara Stamos , founder and CEO of the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego. Tara , thanks for sharing your lived experience with us and for the work that you do.
S4: Thank you.
S1: Still ahead , a look at who cartels are targeting to move drugs.
S5: One of the common factors is lack of criminal record and crosses the border regularly.
S1: KPBS Midday Edition returns after the break. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman , just ahead of International Overdose Awareness Day. We're talking about the impact of drug use and addiction , particularly with opiates , here in San Diego and across the US. Now we zoom out to look at how these drugs make it to the black market. As part of an upcoming three part series , KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis looks at how fentanyl is getting into the nation , some misconceptions about the drug , and how it's affecting San Diego's youth. Gustavo , welcome back to the show.
S5: Hey , Jade. It's nice to be here with you again.
S1: Glad to have you here with us. In your first story , you unpack the narrative that fentanyl is being smuggled into the U.S. by undocumented immigrants.
S5: For for years , um , more recently , right , leading up to the election , you hear this narrative that drugs come , um , through the border , right ? We have an open , porous border , and there are undocumented immigrants carrying these drugs through the mountains and through the deserts and and poisoning the people of the US. Um , you heard a lot of variations of this narrative at the RNC and really even at the DNC , there wasn't any pushback to this narrative , which was frankly , just very easy to disprove using the federal government Border Patrol's own data. And the data shows pretty definitively that the vast majority of drugs that are seized at the border , well over 90% of them are seized at the legal port of entry and at border checkpoints in the interior of the country. And by and large , the people smuggling those drugs are U.S. citizens who can cross the border legally then. So the narrative kind of falls on its face when you dig a little deeper.
S1:
S5: I think it's an easy to scapegoat migrants. We've seen it throughout history. That's something one of the experts told us. It takes the responsibility a little bit away from us looking internally like , what ? What is the US doing to fuel this in terms of demand and that sort of thing ? But I think it's just kind of an easy out , right ? You can kind of put build a wall on a bumper sticker as opposed to , you know , doubling harm reduction efforts and increasing infrastructure along the border to detect drugs like , that's kind of too long to put in a bumper sticker. So it's just a very simple , compelling , and really tried and true narrative.
S1: Well , let's talk about this a little bit more. I mean , what can be done to keep Americans from crossing the border , to get drugs to sell on the black market here in the US ? Yeah.
S5: I think well , the first step is just that kind of you did it right. It's recognizing the patterns and the issues , because one of the problems with the narrative is that it kind of takes up all the oxygen out of the room and really prevents you from coming up with legitimate solutions. Right ? If everyone was talking about an open border , then the policy solution would be to , you know , build a wall. But because most drugs come through the legal border crossing building wall isn't really going to address that , right ? So there are other policy proposals you could push for really , or just diverting funding towards the legal border crossings. Um , last year there was a big story. It was a big controversy in the Biden administration that the government allocated millions and millions of dollars to these noninvasive , uh , scans that you can put on the border. And they basically is like an X-ray scanner for the entire vehicle. And it can detect if there are drugs inside that vehicle. The federal government spent millions of dollars on these scanners but didn't really install them. A lot of them last year were just sitting in warehouses throughout the country , and not a lot of people know about that. Right ? So that's kind of policies like that would help. Also addressing the demand side of the issue , right. Uh , drug reduction policies , uh , different methods to help people who are addicted to fentanyl to get off of it so that it does drive down the demand and makes it less financial incentive for different drug organizations to to be in the space.
S1: Well , in in part two , you look at the impact the fentanyl crisis is having here in San Diego from an overdose perspective , but also looking at youth who get caught up in the cartels drug smuggling operation.
S5: But we we chased it based on what our sources were telling us specifically , both federal prosecutors. Right. The US attorney , Tara McGrath , and local prosecutors , the Da , Sommer , Stephan , they both mentioned that , you know , they're troubled by seeing children get caught up in this and children , minors and even like young adults , you know , think 18 , 19 , early 20s. And they're just seeing a lot of them get involved in the drug trade. Right. The drug organizations in Tijuana are very aggressive at recruiting people to do this. And , you know , going back to what we were talking before , right ? Most drugs come through the legal border crossing. So for a drug organization , it's very appealing to have a kid with no criminal record who crosses the border every day. They're going to fly under the radar. Right. And that's why they're so kind of sought after and being used in this way.
S1: Well , talk about who's most at risk in this , this alarming trend.
S5: Yeah , I think I don't want to say could be everybody because it's not although it is , you know , men , women , younger or older. One of the common factors is lack of criminal record and crosses the border regularly. Right. We will focus on a couple of students from Southwestern College who were targeted for this. Think high school students who live in Tijuana and go to school in San Diego. Now there are so many workers , right ? People are priced out of San Diego. They're moving to Tijuana , they're crossing every day. And the fact that they're priced out of San Diego could be another factor. I spoke with one of the directors of the Border Patrol here in San Diego , Sydney Aqui , who said that cartels will will specifically look for people in financially vulnerable situations and exploit that and say like , hey , we know you need money. Here's a quick and easy way to make money , and they'll kind of start sowing the seeds that way.
S1:
S5: Hey , if you're coming from Tijuana , watch out for this , right ? If you're going over there , watch out for this. They recognize that particularly schools are , you know , big areas both for dealing and selling and trying to get new customers on board. I know the district attorney , uh , summer stuff in her office goes to a lot of public high schools in the region to to kind of get the word out that way.
S1: Well , I'm moving on to the third part of your series , you reported on some relatively good news. Fewer people in the county are actually dying of fentanyl than in past years.
S5: According to the CDC , centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 100,000 people in the United States are dying from this , right ? More people are dying from opioid overdoses than they are of guns and car accidents , which just kind of tells you the scope of what's going on here in San Diego. Deaths have been above 600 for years , and it is really significant , you know , because this came out of nowhere , right ? It's a synthetic , um , drug and it didn't really exist. And if you look at the data , it just , you know , picture a bar graph , it just go straight up from nothing to a lot like that. Then it kind of plateaued for a little bit the last couple of years. And now for the first time really ever , for the first time since we've been tracking this , uh the Da tells me that there's about a 7% reduction in , in deaths , which they are both the Da. Sommer Steffen and the U.S. attorney , Tara McGrath told me that it's a good sign , but it's not something they're , you know , celebrating or happy about because it's only 7% and there's still hundreds of deaths in the region. So so it's a sign of some things working , but they still really , really , really need to do more.
S1:
S5: I mean , I've been covering Border Patrol issues for a long time , and fentanyl is just something that wasn't even like in the stats. When you look at drugs that have seizure , like there was no fentanyl category. So it literally came out of nowhere. And here in San Diego , we saw the deaths really spike in the hundreds and more in 2018.
S1: Well , many pills have been laced with the drug over the past few years.
S5: Um , we're seeing a shift in really just what people want , right ? As you said in the beginning of the the financial crisis. A lot of the overdoses were what were called , you know , accidental overdoses , uh , people , um , buying , you know , under the market , illegal prescription pills that happened to be laced with fentanyl. People using , uh , other drugs , meth , um , heroin , cocaine laced in fentanyl and overdosing that way. Uh , Summer , Stephan told me particularly that within the last year or so , she's seen a shift where people are specifically asking for fentanyl. Which makes sense , right ? I talked to some , you know , drug treatment experts who described it as , look , if you're feeding this population drugs laced with fentanyl , eventually people are going to realize that , you know , fentanyl is stronger , it's more potent. They're going to start identifying that , knowing that they're using it and ditching the other product. Right. So if they were using , you know , they had a problem and the Xanax happened to be laced in fentanyl , they eventually dropped the snacks and just use fentanyl by itself. So it is a totally different population of users and and consumer habits really.
S1:
S5: Right. So people will smuggle drugs into San Diego and they'll take them to , um , what officials called larger distribution centers , think cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas to make their way across the country. That aspect , I don't see it going away just because of geographic regions and the way our supply chains are set up. There's also the local market for fentanyl , right ? So we have this kind of transitory market and the local market in San Diego. I do think there are efforts really working at reducing the impact of the local market. I'm thinking the availability of lifesaving drugs like naloxone and Narcan. Right. More kind of acceptance in those types of drug treatment therapies. More coordination between federal and local law enforcement and tackling some of these issues. So it's really it's a complex market because it's two markets in one.
S3: All right.
S1: Gustavo Solis will be rolling out a three part series on this subject. And we are all looking forward to it. Gustavo , thank you so much for joining us.
S5: Oh thank you Jade. Always happy to be here.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
