SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A growing fentanyl crisis is killing people throughout the state. On Thursday, hundreds of minds came together to discuss how to protect communities from this deadly drug.
Stockton mom Jennifer Burruel knows its impact firsthand.
“Last September 5 is when we got the news,” she said.
Her son Christopher Calvird died three weeks after his 29th birthday.
“We got the call that he had died of fentanyl poisoning. He lived on the streets of San Francisco for the last 10 years. And he shared the gospel with people and he was really trying to make a difference in their lives. All the while, he was struggling with his own demons,” Burruel said. “He was really a special kid. And he's missed by so many people.”
With community support, Burruel now has a billboard along Stockton’s Pacific Avenue, near West Swain Road. Thursday would have been her son’s 30th birthday.
"I wouldn't wish this for any other parent to go through this. It's an absolute nightmare,” she said. “I'm just trying to do whatever I can. And sometimes I feel pretty helpless as a mother."
It’s understandable feeling helpless, when new numbers from the state show fentanyl-related deaths in California nearly quadrupled between 2019 and 2022. In 2019, the state reports 1,603 fentanyl-related deaths. In the newly released preliminary numbers for 2022, the state shows at least 6,095 people died from fentanyl poisoning.
“It’s a crisis that needs to be stopped,” said Avontae Brown, a youth advocate with the Sacramento-based nonprofit Voice of the Youth.
He was a panelist at the Sacramento County Fentanyl Awareness and Action Summit Thursday on Sacramento State’s campus. Hundreds of leaders in public health, law enforcement, treatment and recovery and community-based organizations shared resources and their personal stories.
“Literally, you have cases that I’ve dealt with personally—families calling me saying, ‘All it was, was one pill. All it was, was someone that gave him or her a pill that they thought was something else,’” said Voice of the Youth founder and community activist Berry Accius.
He said fentanyl impacts all communities.
“Fentanyl is not a white drug,” he said.
Sacramento County health officials tell ABC10 it’s a growing epidemic in the Black community. Last year, 16% of fentanyl overdoses in the county were among Black people. Already this year, Black people make up 26% of overdose deaths. For context, they make up just about 10% of the county’s population, so their fentanyl overdose death rate is disproportionately high.
“We need more resources and more understanding in our communities,” Brown said. “We need somewhere where people can go to talk to someone about how they’re feeling and not feel like, ‘Oh, I’m being shunned,’ or, ‘Oh, I’m being judged.’”
Thanks to settlement money from opioid manufacturers, more resources are coming to Sacramento County, said Timothy Lutz, director of Health Services for Sacramento County.
“The settlement funds represent true new money coming into our community -- over $7 million to Sacramento alone,” he said. “That’s on an annual basis, so that’s significant money that’s now coming to us locally to be able to provide services, to be able to provide resources.”
Health officials also recommend people add Narcan – or the general naloxone – to their first aid kits. It’s called a miracle drug. It’s an opioid overdose reversal drug. It’s administered as an easy-to-use nose spray. If you give someone Narcan but it turns out they weren’t overdosing on opioids, it doesn’t hurt them, medical professionals say. It’s available over the counter.
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