Fentanyl county’s top killer




John Hajducko was a narcotics detective for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office from 2014 to 2018.

During that time, he said, overdoses and fentanyl were not significant concerns for law enforcement.

Four years later and now a sergeant with the county’s interagency pharmaceutical crimes unit, Hajducko witnesses the devastating impacts of overdoses, especially fentanyl-related overdoses, far more frequently.

The sheriff’s office, in partnership with other county agencies, wants to build on the momentum of Aug. 31’s International Overdose Awareness Day throughout the year by offering sympathy and support to those affected by drug addiction.

“This is something that we understand is becoming a huge epidemic both in our community and nationwide,” said Hajducko, whose unit investigates overdoses in the county’s jurisdiction. “We want to make sure that people understand we enforce the law because we care.”

In 2021, there were 269 accidental overdose deaths in Ventura County, according to the medical examiner’s office. That’s a 33% increase from 2020 and a 94% increase from 2019.

Fentanyl, developed to treat cancer patients with nearly 100 times more potency than morphine, contributed significantly to that spike. The CDC labeled the synthetic opioid as the No. 1 cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, surpassing COVID-19, car crashes and suicide.

It is especially dangerous because it is often mixed with or disguised as other, less deadly drugs, causing unwitting buyers to accidentally overdose.

Hajducko said that, based on the increase in fentanyl-related arrests and overdoses he has seen this year, he predicts the medical examiner’s office’s 2022 statistics to be even more devastating.

Dan Hicks, prevention services manager at Ventura County Behavioral Health, said he also expects an increase in overdose deaths from 2021 given regional and national trends.

To counteract the crisis, the sheriff’s office participates in the County Opioid Abuse Suppression Task Force, or COAST, a joint effort with behavioral health and the medical examiner’s office to reduce overdoses.

“Our goal is to go after the drug dealers,” Hajducko said, “because their care and concern isn’t your loved one. Their care and concern is about the money they’re making.”

While the sheriff’s office’s focus is enforcing state and federal drug laws, he said, educating the public about the dangers of opioids and the resources available is just as important.

Overdoses, Hicks said, are preventable.

“If people who overdose are going to benefit from treatment, they need to be alive,” he said. “That’s why we want families, public agencies and community members to be able to recognize and respond to overdose. Just like CPR in the 1980s became institutionalized and training routine, we need to be able to use simple techniques to respond to overdose and bring drug users closer to the care that’s available.”

Between 2014 and 2021, Hicks said, nearly 1,500 lives have been saved with naloxone, commonly sold under the brand name Narcan.

Naloxone rapidly reverses opioid overdoses and, Hicks said, should be more widely distributed.

Though people are often fearful about reporting overdoses to law enforcement, Hajducko said, California’s 911 Good Samaritan law provides limited protection from arrest, charges and prosecution for those who seek medical assistance.

“If we can get help and services to somebody before an overdose occurs or before they get so far involved in the drug culture that it’s really, really hard to bring them back, we’d rather have it done that way,” he said.

RESOURCES

• Ventura County Behavioral Health’s confidential substance use treatment access line is (844) 385-9200.

Websites

SafeChoicesVC.org.

coastventuracounty.org.

VenturaCountyResponds.org.