In 2021, here in California, there were 5,622 fentanyl fatal overdoses.
There were some 70,000 fentanyl deaths in the U.S. in the same year.
Fentanyl is considered 50 times stronger than heroin. Drug dealers are mixing fentanyl into all sorts of other drugs, including fake prescription pills. The price for a fentanyl high decreased from $20 to $1.
And just 2 milligrams of fentanyl — an amount that fits on the tip of a pencil — is considered a potentially deadly dose.
What’s worse? A real zombie apocalypse is upon us! Drug addicts, including scores of homeless people, are now inhaling a concoction that is a mixture of fentanyl and “tranq” — the animal sedative Xylazine.
These two drugs combined lead to a variety of unpleasant outcomes: death, flesh-eating abscesses and zombie-like trances.
California’s response to out-of-control opioid and fentanyl overdoses?
Create safe spaces for addicts where ample supplies of naloxone, aka Narcan, can be administered —albeit there is no antidote for tranq. Hence, once again, California’s approach to self-destructive behavior is a Band-Aid approach, after the fact.
One reason the drug problem is getting worse in some states, such as California, is that possession of drugs for personal use is no longer a felony. More importantly, our de facto open border with Mexico has allowed the drug cartels to flood America with enough fentanyl to kill every American, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The cartels manufacture the fentanyl with chemicals largely sourced from China, and that is why some representatives of Congress are demanding that fentanyl be labeled a weapon of mass destruction!
Meanwhile, this is one of the main reasons California’s approach, including right here in Santa Barbara County, to ending homelessness is guaranteed to fail.
A significant number of homeless people are drug addicts. As Michael Steeb of the Texas Public Policy Center and the author of “Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic” states, California is the only state in the union who adopted President Barack Obama’s housing first policy in 2016.
The stupid theory posits that homelessness can be solved by providing housing to people who are not held responsible or accountable in any way for any of their debilitating behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse — and the refusal to get a job!
I recently interviewed Mary Theroux, a successful businesswoman from the Bay Area who has published the documentary “Beyond Homelessness: Finding Hope.” She indicated peer-reviewed research indicates that alternative approaches, to that which is commonplace in California, can result in actual radical declines in homelessness and a path to transformed lives.
Using San Francisco as an example, homelessness has increased more than 50% while spending to solve homelessness has increased 130%! Why is that?
It has to do with the fact that recovery programs that take up to 6 months to complete have a 90% failure rate!
Whereas, programs that deal with the underlying causes of homelessness, including addiction, can take 2-3 years but with a success rate of up to 90%.
However, here in California, it is against the law to require sobriety or treatment for sobriety as a condition to receive services, including housing! The approach here in California to provide medical care, food, shelter and places to shoot up are hindering the homeless from hitting rock bottom, which is the one thing that can cause the person to be willing to make new choices that can lead to healing and wholeness.
If county supervisors cherry-pick people who are simply poor, rather than those who are addicted and mentally ill, as to who receives the benefit of their $90 million effort to end homelessness, the program could succeed. However, the people who are making a nuisance of themselves are the addicted and mentally ill and are the least likely to welcome meaningful help.
Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.
