Fentanyl killing more in Sacramento than homicide in 2021, county officials, DA say
Sacramento County officials continue to warn about a drastic increase in fentanyl deaths, overwhelmingly linked to counterfeit prescription pills that are either laced with the dangerous opioid or are just straight-up fentanyl.
The county as of early November estimated 87 deaths this year from fentanyl, just one shy of the total for all of 2020, according to a news release from the Department of Health Services and the District Attorney’s Office. That’s up from 36 fentanyl deaths reported countywide in 2019, already a big increase from 14 in 2018.
“In Sacramento, we are experiencing a high rate of fentanyl-related deaths and our Crime Lab data shows that virtually all of the pills seized on our streets are fake and contain fentanyl” while being sold as something else, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said in a prepared statement late last month. “This staggering data should serve as a wake-up call for our community.”
Schubert over the summer announced a public awareness campaign centered on fentanyl. Her office estimates that 97% of seized oxycodone pills analyzed by the DA’s crime lab this year have been counterfeit, and that 97% of those counterfeit pills contained fentanyl.
Fake pills are often stamped with images of brands such as OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax and Adderall.
Of pills analyzed from January 2020 to July 2021, 75% were “straight fentanyl,” the DA’s office said in an August news release.
Authorities will hold a free fentanyl safety awareness fair this Saturday on the north lawn of the state Capitol, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will include free Narcan kits, demonstrations on how to use the emergency spray and other resources.
Surviving family members of fentanyl overdose victims are also expected to speak at the event.
2021 is on track to become the first year ever in which the county records more deaths from fentanyl than homicide, a Sacramento Bee analysis of health and crime data earlier this year found.
“There’s no other synthetic opiate that gives the same bang for your buck,” Wade Shannon, a special agent in charge at the DEA’s San Francisco office, told The Bee earlier this year. “The problem is you have really inconsistent quality. Anything over 2 milligrams can be a lethal dose.”
