Trump reduces overdose prevention efforts for alarm experts

Almost a decade in the California fentanyl crisis, public health experts find both optimism and concern.

The deadly opioid overdoses in the state have finally backed away records, with approximately 6,700 deaths recorded in the first half of 2024 – a drop of about 16% compared to the peak of 2023.

But doctors, researchers and some Los Angeles County officials warn that many key measures credited for turning the trend are in danger. President Trump has reduced federal funding for drug addiction programs, with certain services in the county on blocking.

Preliminary data from the county of the show approximately 1,300 fatal overdoses caused by fentanyl and other opioids in mid-2014, around 300 less deaths at a similar time in 2023.

Several experts have said that the emphasis on reducing misdeeds, including increased availability of the overdose reversal medication, naloxone and fentanyl test kits, were the cause of improvement.

But money intended to support such efforts is now drying.

A spokesperson for the County Department of Public Health said that the federal cuts included the cancellation of more than $ 45 million in misdeed reduction grants. Certain funding for the prevention of drug addiction have also been terminated in the middle of the contract due to federal budgetary changes, the spokesman said.

“Just as we are progressing on the overdose numbers, now is the time to yield,” said the press release from the Department of Public Health.

At the same time, local authorities are reversing a more traditional approach to the fight against crime, which includes the pursuit of prison terms against certain drug delinquents.

The Californians voted to adopt the proposal 36 during the last electoral cycle, imposing more strict sanctions for the repeated flight and the crimes involving fentanyl.

The County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman campaigned last year on the drug crisis, committing to holding “poisoners / murderers of fentanyl fully responsible for their actions to propagate this poison in our communities”.

“Each fentanyl merchant will be informed of the serious repercussions of his freedom if she kills a person with her poison,” said Hochman’s campaign website.

Ricardo Garcia, the public county of the County of the, said that the accent renewed on the punishment of crimes related to drugs looked like a flashback at the moment when long penalties for the crack fueled mass incarceration.

“It is something that we have seen before that increases very quickly and often has a devastating effect on poor communities, black and brown communities, and frankly, taxpayers, such as the cost of managing this overlord,” said Garcia.

The parallels with the era of the crack are disturbing for many work on the front lines of today’s crisis, of dehumanizing rhetoric – describing the users of fentanyl as “zombies” – to policies of determining the punitive penalty.

Shoshanna Scholar, director of the reduction of misdeeds for County, said that the key to saving lives is clear: accelerating the distribution of naloxone and overdose prevention efforts in high -risk communities.

“Over the past 25 years, there has been a real calculation of substances consumption and seeing it as a chronic condition, as opposed to the wrong behavior that requires punishment to change it,” said Scholar. “We know there is another path and it actually works to reduce the number of deaths.”

Since 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom has invested more than a billion dollars in subsidies for the distribution of naloxone, fentanyl test strips and other anti-surdose initiatives. Naloxone – Also known as Narcan – is now available for purchase for all California residents through the CALRX initiative for $ 24.

At the Coachella Valley Coachella Valley Festival of this year, End Overdose, an organization based in Burbank, had a stand near the EDM stages of the festival offering naloxone training, free doses and a variety of loot.

At the stand, two two -year -old festival -goers, Mimi and Lily – who asked to be identified only by their first names to discuss drug use – said they had taken all possible precautions for fear that they cannot be sold for fentanyl.

“Honestly, we learn the most Reddit and our parents. They always tell me to pay attention to fentanyl,” said Mimi. “It reminds me a lot when people promote abstinence when it comes to sure sex, when they should really speak of condoms and contraceptives. Because, anyway, people will take drugs, so you have to make sure you do it safely. ”

Dr. Brian Hurley, the county medical director who oversees the treatment initiatives of the drug addiction, said that the implementation of more severe sanctions on drug consumers can increase the risk of overdose, because people are more likely to use it alone and in secret.

“It becomes more difficult to engage people in an open, honest and neutral conversation on their ready to use, if they are ready to try temporary housing or take a bedroom bed. All these things bring people out of the street out in a way that advances what most people really want, “said Hurley.

He and others noted that even with difficult policies on crime of the 80s and 90s, Crack consumption has never disappeared. And despite the local authorities, say for years that arrests and prosecution are not the solution, experts said that it was always difficult for those who need treatment to find help.

Devon O’malley, on the left, a case reduction manager of the misdeeds at Venice Family Clinic, distributes Narcan Nasal Spray in Ken Newark, 63, at Tongva Park in Santa Monica.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

“People push more serious sanctions and more arrests, but that is not how you prevent people from using a medication you don’t want them to use,” Dr. Ricky Bluthgehal, public health teacher at the USC, told the USC. “In general, incarceration is not a place where people improve.”

This message, however, is contrary to the approach of the hard line now pushed by the White House. Trump cited the deaths of fentanyl as a reason for rates against China, a source of chemical ingredients used in clandestine laboratories and drone strikes suggested on Mexican drug cartels. Trump also declared fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction and called to give drug traffickers the death penalty

For Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a UC teacher from San Francisco who is doing research on public health and drug use, it is difficult not to see history repeat.

The professor, who recently published an article on “moral panics” surrounding the consumption of drugs, said that elected officials have long been concerned with optics and approval ratings to attack the underlying causes of dependence.

“We are afraid of this medication, and we are afraid of people who use drugs,” said Ciccarone. “When we are afraid, the natural human response is to seek security. Who can make us feel more safe? Police and courts. ”

The recent trend of overdose deaths offers at least one glimmer of hope, he added, even if no one can agree on the best way to follow.

“I recognize that as a human impulse of fear, emergency and panic, we have to do something,” he said. “I heard that of the police saying:” We must be considered to be doing something “and I say:” OK, but do not aggravate the problem. “”