Somerton council members call for education campaign against fentanyl
SOMERTON – City council members here want the police and fire departments to launch an anti-drug campaign in hopes of preventing a surge of overdoses seen elsewhere in Yuma County.
At a recent session, Councilman Luis Galindo asked the police and fire chiefs to look into the possibility of holding public forums or meetings in Somerton to focus on the dangers of drugs in general and of fentanyl in particular.
His call came just two days after a
15-year-old girl was found dead in her home in San Luis, Ariz., from what was suspected to be a fentanyl overdose. That city’s police and fire departments were still awaiting the results of a toxicological report in the case.
At least eight fentanyl overdose cases have been recorded in San Luis since the start of the year, on the heels of 40 cases recorded in the city in 2019. The cases typically involved teens of high school age or young adults.
Galindo, a friend of the girl’s family, said Somerton is not immune to the dangers of fentanyl seen in San Luis and other communities.
“It hurts me to see youth become lost and die in this manner,” Galindo said in an interview. “That girl should have been celebrating her quinceañera, but instead, her funeral was observed. In this city, we are not exempt from the danger among our young people, and we have to do something to prevent it.”
“I believe it is important that we get involved in informing the people. It’s something that hasn’t happened in Somerton, but it hit me close to the heart because she was the daughter of a friend, and it is suspected that it was because of fentanyl (that she died). We have to educate parents, and they have to take responsibility for looking out for their children.”
Somerton Fire Chief Paul De Anda said the fire department had previously visited junior high and high schools to talk to kids about drug risks.
“We don’t have a formal program other than those presentations we take to the schools, but I’m going to get together with the chief of police to see what we could implement. Fortunately we haven’t had as many overdose cases as San Luis has had, (but) we will see if there is something we can do to prevent it.”
But De Anda stressed that any anti-drug program will be successful only if parents get involved. The program, he said, would need to be tailored to fit the community’s lifestyles and parents’ daily schedules.
There were nine overdose cases in Somerton in 2019, four of which involved minors, according to the Somerton Cocopah Fire Department.
While drug prevention efforts up to now have been concentrated in San Luis, Somerton Vice Mayor Martha Garcia said she believes they can be coordinated to serve Somerton as well.
An opioid prescribed as a pain management drug, fentanyl can be combined with illicit drugs in pill or powder form to create a cheaper, more intense high. But fentanyl is also highly addictive and can be fatal to the user even in small amounts.
Galindo, an employee of Yuma Regional Medical Center, previously knew of fentanyl only for its legitimate use in surgical care.
“We use fentanyl in the hospital, but never, not until recently, had I thought of the threat as an (illegal) drug,” he said. “The problem is that one legal pill has one milligram of fentanyl. We don’t know if the pills that come illegally from Mexico or China have seven or more milligrams of the drug. That is something that is very dangerous.”
Galindo said a city-led anti-drug campaign could be taken to church and school meetings to educate parents about the risk of opioid abuse and involve them in efforts to stop it.
The campaign could also be the cause for reviving meetings that council members and City Hall staff used to have on a recurring basis with residents in each of Somerton’s neighborhoods.
“That is something I am going to propose. Those meetings stopped because of the changes that there were in (City Hall) administration, but I think that the time is right to restart them, not only to talk about the issue of drugs but also to get back to having that contact and communication with the residents.”
Somerton Mayor Gerardo Anaya says he supports Galindo’s proposal.