On Aug. 9, Methamphetamine Advisory Task Force Executive Director Merilee Fowler spoke about the dangers of fentanyl to a crowd of about 70 people at the Mingus Mountain Republican Club luncheon at the VFW Hall in Cottonwood.
MATForce, which was formed in 2005 to address meth use in the community, is a coalition that works with people from varying sectors to reduce substance abuse.
Fowler, who has been head of the organization for the past 15 years, described a deadly, illicit counterfeit fentanyl, which is being manufactured by drug dealers and has now overtaken meth as the most popular drug of choice.
“This is not prescription fentanyl that we’re dealing with, this is illicit counterfeit pills that are laced with fentanyl,” Fowler said.
Fowler described how overdose deaths from fentanyl have skyrocketed across the nation in recent years.
“From 2016 to 2021, there was a 633% increase in overdose deaths,” Fowler said. “The other thing that is very alarming is that young people are dying from this illicit counterfeit fentanyl and it’s because of how deadly this drug is; one pill can kill.”
“In Yavapai County in 2020, we actually had five young people that died; two of them being 14 years old,” Fowler said. “They don’t realize they take that one pill and the next morning they don’t wake up.”
Fowler said that MATForce’s No. 1 priority is youth prevention.
“Our goal is to convince [youth] that they don’t ever want to start using these substances,” she said. “How much easier is that, than when somebody decides to use that substance and goes down the road of addiction?”
One way MATForce is reaching out is through the organization’s Overdose Fatality Review Board, which formed in 2017.
“With every overdose in Yavapai County, we get the medical examiner’s report so that we can find out the family’s contact information and contact the family,” Fowler said.
Some of the families agree to interviews, which Fowler said helps MATForce to understand what is happening in these individual’s lives and to prevent these deaths from happening to others.
MATForce is currently running a series of outreach commercials featuring testimonials from the actual parents and family members who have lost their loved ones to fentanyl.
In one of the commercials, a mother describes the horror she felt from finding her son “cold and hard” in his bedroom, and having to watch helplessly as first responders took him away in a body bag.
“This is life and death,” the mother said. “I think we have to show up as parents and have those conversations, no matter how uncomfortable they are. I never had that conversation with my son.”
Fowler warned that drug dealers are now using Instagram and other social media sites to target young people saying that we have to pay attention to what our kids are looking at on their phones.
“Please talk to your kids about never sticking a pill in their mouth that is not prescribed to them or given to them by a responsible adult [even] if it’s an over-the-counter medication,” Fowler said.
While MATForce focuses on youth prevention, Fowler says substance use affects people of all ages, and many people using fentanyl are struggling with addiction.
“This is the drug that people that have an opioid-use disorder are seeking out,” she said.
While the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] say fentanyl overdose deaths in the U.S. topped 100,000 for the first time in 2021, Fowler says that there is some good news locally.
“The good news [is] we actually had a reduction in overdose deaths from 2020 to 2021,” she said. “We went from 83 to 74 overdose deaths. We were the only county to experience that reduction.”
Despite a reduction in overdose deaths, Fowler said it’s amazing to think of the quantities [of pills] that are coming into Arizona.
“Almost 80% of the counterfeit [fentanyl] pills are coming through Arizona,” Fowler said.
Fowler stated that over 6 million pills were confiscated in Arizona in 2020 and 12 million pills were confiscated in 2021.
“I will just cringe to think about what the number is going to be for 2022,” she said. “Some of you probably saw in the news that there was just a bust in Yavapai County with 50,000 pills.”
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, there were two seizures which took place at a traffic stop in Camp Verde within 30 minutes of each other.
“The first traffic stop resulted in the seizure of eight pounds of meth and 10 pounds, 40,000 pills, of fentanyl, following a consent search of the vehicle,” YCSO stated. “The second stop, merely 30 minutes later, lead to the confiscation of approximately 15,000 fentanyl pills.”
“[Fentanyl] comes in many forms,” Fowler said. “I have heard they’re changing it from blue to other colors to make it more appealing to people.”
Fowler urged attendees to share information about fentanyl with others, and directed them to visit the Illicit Counterfeit Fentanyl Education and Awareness Campaign website, talknowaz. com.
“Think of five people that you can share this information with,” she said.
For more information about MATForce, visit matforce.org
