The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they seized 1.1 million fentanyl pills and 523 pounds of meth during the past week.
Gretchen Burns Bergman, an addiction recovery and advocacy nonprofit co-founder, said fentanyl has replaced heroin as the new street drug. She has two sons who struggled with heroin addiction.
The Scourge of Fentanyl
“When I talked to [my son] about that, I said, ‘Thank God it was heroin in your day,' and he said, ‘Mom, you know, it’s whatever is there on the street — right now, it's fentanyl, so I would be using fentanyl,' ” Bergman told NBC 7 on Wednesday.
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Earlier this month, California attorney general Rob Bonta said statewide, almost 300 have been arrested during fentanyl busts, with more than 11 million fentanyl pills seized.
“We are taking action,” Bonta said. “We will hold you accountable. We will detect you and we will dismantle your organization.”
Earlier this week, the head of Mexico’s criminal investigation agency said the country is one of the top fentanyl producers, using chemicals from other parts of the world. Once the synthetic drug is manufactured there, it is then smuggled north across the border.
“Most of the fentanyl smuggled is by U.S. citizens,” Bergman said.
Bergman said the most recent bust addresses the fentanyl supply issue, but the demand is what’s driving it and where the most resources should go. Crisis relief starts at the source, she said, which is addiction. As a parent who’s faced addiction with her own kids, she said other parents need to be aware and face it head-on.
“People would say, ‘Don't talk to kids about drugs,’ ” Bergman said. “And my response is, ‘They know about drugs and they've had friends who have died in the bathrooms at their school. So be aware and be nonjudgmental, because it doesn't help to push them away.’”
“A New Path” nonprofit offers free Narcan kits, support for safe syringe services and other resources for anyone struggling with addiction.
