Today, June 5th, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is hosting a roundtable discussion in Everett about Snohomish County’s fentanyl crisis with Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, first responders, local elected leaders, city officials, Tribal leaders, health specialists, law enforcement, and members of the community who have been personally impacted by the problem.
In a previous story, we reported that Executive Dave Somers has tragic experience with this involving this issue with his brother. He has been very proactive in addressing this issue. The county is doing everything possible within their means to counter this horrible problem.
Preliminary data released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that the State of Washington experienced the second highest increase among U.S. states in reported drug overdose deaths from 2021 to 2022, an increase of 21.4%. Nationwide, drug overdose deaths are projected to reach 109,680.
The number of those in Snohomish County that involved fentanyl jumped from 24 to 189, which represents a nearly eight-fold increase. The county has already exceeded 80 fatal overdoses within the first quarter of 2023, with more than half of them tied to opioids.
In Snohomish County, more than 860 people have died of overdoses since the start of 2020, and 658 of those overdoses were opioid-related. Fentanyl was involved in more than 80% of opioid-related deaths in 2022, compared to 23% in 2017.
The results and actions of this meeting will be reported in a follow-up story as soon as they are available.
