Fentanyl-related deaths saw a five-year low in Orange County, authorities said Thursday.<\/p>\n
There were 407 fentanyl-related deaths in the county last year, down from 613 in 2023. Sheriff\u2019s officials say the trend is continuing this year so far.<\/p>\n
According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, there were 20 fentany-related deaths in the county in 2015, 37 in 2016, 56 in 2017, 107 in 2018, 147 in 2019, 433 in 2020, 717 in 2021, 676 in 2022, 613 in 2023 and 407 last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing a progressive drop in the number of fentanyl-related deaths is encouraging and a testament to the collaborative work of the Sheriff\u2019s Department and the county in addressing this complex and challenging issue,\u201d Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said. \u201cHowever, our work is far from done. We will continue to work together to be innovative and effective in fighting fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities credited law enforcement, legislation and community outreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am encouraged and hopeful that the collective efforts by our county are making an impact in the fight against fentanyl,\u201d said Orange County Board Chairman Doug Chaffee. \u201cThe fight isn\u2019t over, so we will continue in these efforts to save lives and protect our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities last year seized about 184 pounds of fentanyl powder and about 45,300 pills.<\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s deputies started investigating all drug-related overdose as potential homicides in 2021, officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny life lost to fentanyl abuse is one too many,\u201d said Orange County Board Vice Chair Katrina Foley. \u201cI commend the collective efforts by county departments and my office to educate the community and distribute naloxone to help reduce fentanyl deaths amongst our Orange County youth. From here, we must continue prioritizing treatment and holding drug traffickers accountable for poisoning our young adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff\u2019s officials have also stepped up efforts to screen for drugs in the county\u2019s jails and treat inmates.<\/p>\n
Orange County Health Care Agency officials have also spearheaded two media campaigns to educate the public about fentanyl.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to jail programming and services, the HCA takes a comprehensive approach to addressing substance use disorders and, specifically, fentanyl use,\u201d said HCA Director, Dr. Veronica Kelley. \u201cWe have strong collaborative partnerships with our Sheriff\u2019s Department and Board offices, and have implemented strategies to care for the clients, including incarcerated individuals, to ensure they receive the care and support they need so they can begin recovery and rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fentanyl-related deaths saw a five-year low in Orange County, authorities said Thursday. There were 407 fentanyl-related deaths in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,166,4589,33089,171,25799],"class_list":{"0":"post-51999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-county","12":"tag-deaths","13":"tag-fentanyl-related","14":"tag-orange","15":"tag-trending"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}