California’s National Guard intercepted thousands of pounds of deadly fentanyl at ports of entry, enough to kill the entire world’s population “nearly twice over,” the governor said.
The National Guard, or CalGuard, worked with other government drug interdiction agencies to seize a record 62,000 pounds of fentanyl, a 1,066 percent increase from the 5,300 pounds seized in 2021.
It is unclear whether more seizures have been made in the past year due to the increased number of officers, or whether drug traffickers are massively increasing production.
The flood of fentanyl into the drug supply began in the early 2010s, marking the start of what health experts and government agencies have called the third wave of the opioid epidemic, which will claim the lives of more than 100,000 Americans in 2022 alone. Fentanyl was involved in 70 percent of those deaths.
The California National Guard made record-breaking seizures of more than 62,000 pounds of fentanyl in 2023, a 1,066 percent increase from the 5,300 pounds seized in 2021
One of the hardest-hit communities is the city of San Francisco, where the fentanyl and burgeoning xylazine crisis are taking a devastating toll on residents there.
Just two milligrams of fentanyl – equivalent to about 10 grains of table salt – is a lethal dose.
The drug has infiltrated the illicit drug supply because it is relatively cheap to manufacture, and more often than not, pills sold on the street and billed as something else, such as a benzodiazepine, are laced with the drug.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said: ‘Fentanyl is a poison and has no place in our communities. California is cracking down, increasing seizures, expanding access to substance abuse treatment, and holding drug traffickers accountable to combat the immeasurable harm opioids have inflicted on our communities.”
In 2021 there were nearly 6,000 opioid-related deaths in California. According to the state health department, California’s opioid-related deaths increased 121 percent in just three years from 2019 to 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were linked to fentanyl.
One of the most affected communities is the city of San Francisco, where a desperate situation is playing out in real time, evident in stark images of people slumped and slumped in the streets or actively using drugs in the open.
Gov. Newsom deployed the National Guard and the California Highway Patrol there last May.
The crisis in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods is also caused by the rise of the veterinary tranquilizer Xylazine sold on the streets.
In 2023, more than 800 people died of an overdose in San Francisco, a record. The vast majority of these deaths – 653 – were attributed to fentanyl.
The city reported 806 overdose deaths in 2023, which was the highest year on record: 2020, when 726 people died
Gov. Newsom added, “California is cracking down – increasing seizures, expanding access to substance abuse treatment, and holding drug traffickers accountable to combat the immeasurable harm opioids have inflicted on our communities.”
Several provinces have even launched a new, unprecedented method to limit the scale of the crisis – accusing drug dealers of murder.
Since taking office in 2019, Governor Newsom has overseen an investment of more than $1 billion to address the trafficking of opioids, including fentanyl, and expand access to treatment programs for people with opioid use disorder.
Among those efforts is a plan to partner with CalRx, which will receive $30 million to boost distribution of naloxone overdose reversal kits, which involve a nasal spray that binds to opioid receptors in the brain, causing the opioids present repressed and their effects blocked.
The spray, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, quickly relieves respiratory distress caused by an overdose and restores breathing. However, the use of the spray is not the only thing. It aims to limit the most acute consequences and give the person enough time to call an ambulance and get help from medical professionals.
The problem is far from limited to California, and the Drug Enforcement Administration continues to seize thousands of pounds of the drug every year.
In the past year, federal officials have seized nearly 80 million counterfeit fentanyl pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, as reported by the DEA.
The DEA has made interceptions in 2024 alone more than 19.8 million pills containing fentanyl and more than 1,215 pounds of the drug in powder form.