BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — 5,772 Californians were killed by fentanyl in 2021. As the opioid crisis in America continues, the 2023 Community Collaborative against Fentanyl, which took place at the Fox Theater on Saturday, aims to educate the community about this potent opioid.
“Let's educate now, let's start having a conversation on what fentanyl does. Synthetic opioids, it is fifty times stronger than morphine, it is one hundred times stronger than heroin,” Gilbert Laroque, Program Director at Bakersfield Recovery Services said.
The community event featured speakers and presentations that educated attendees about the effects of fentanyl on the body, and highlighted the resources that Kern County offers regarding drug addiction.
“The most important thing is we need to create more awareness about what's happening in our community. The fact is fentanyl is a very deadly drug. It's on our streets, it's in the hands of our children unfortunately. America is losing its war on drugs,” Dr. Jasmeet Bains, Assemblywoman for the Thirty-Fifth District, said.
Dr. Jasmeet Bains worked as an addiction doctor before running for office and her bill addressing fentanyl, which she introduced the first day she was sworn into office, passed this week in the California State Assembly, along with three other bills hoping to solve the fentanyl crisis.
Bains talked about her bill.
“AB33 is going to put together a panel of experts, medical doctors, law enforcement, and other expert from other sectors that work currently on combating the fentanyl crisis,” Bains said, adding, “We need a statewide led effort that integrates public safety and public health, they need to now be at the same table.”
Three fentanyl related bills failed to pass this week. These bills focused on increased penalties for those who were caught dealing fentanyl.
“In California and across the country we’ve had a real problem of mass incarceration of black and brown people as well, that’s something we need to take into consideration, but that doesn’t mean we let people get off after dealing drugs to our children as well. I think people absolutely do have to be held accountable,” Bains said, adding, “At the same time we have to create an effective task force and can look at what happened with the cocaine epidemic and make sure we don’t go on the same route and lock up people unnecessarily.”
The event also featured a training on how to administer Narcan, a drug that can save a person's life after they have overdosed on opioids. At the end of the training, they handed out Narcan to anybody who wanted some.
I attend a church downtown and I do a lot of things downtown so I am around opportunities where you might run across someone who is in need of that,” Karen Lillie, who attended the event, said.
Lillie used to teach psychiatric nursing at CSUB and thought the information given at the event was very helpful.
“I am really excited about dr. bains and her position and the fact that she is really stepping forward and doing things in this arena,” said Lillie.
