We aren’t winning’: Las Vegas drug overdose deaths continue troubling trend

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Wade Vandervort

Firefighter Paramedic Tim Velasquez speaks about his experiences with drug overdose victims on International Overdose Awareness Day at Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Station 1, downtown, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.

Sun, Sep 5, 2021 (2 a.m.)

International Overdose Awareness Day

Audience members applaud as former addicts share their experiences on the path to sobriety during the fifth annual International Overdose Awareness Day event at the Chuck Minker Sports Complex Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. The Southern Nevada Harm Reduction Alliance (SNHRA) hosted the event. Launch slideshow »

International Overdose Awareness Day

EMS Field Coordinator Scott Phillips holds up Narcan while speaking on International Overdose Awareness Day at Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Station 1, downtown, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. Launch slideshow »

First responder Tim Velasquez has been to so many drug-related emergencies in the Las Vegas Valley over the past 15 years that he finds it impossible to quantify. 

“I’ve given Narcan more times than I can count,” said the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue medic and firefighter about the brand name of naloxone, an opioid antidote that prevents the drug from reaching brain receptors, essentially reversing overdoses. 

He vividly remembers a call on Nov. 3, 2019.

One moment, a couple had been hosting a family gathering. The next, the man and woman were sprawled, unconscious in a bathroom.

Velasquez detailed the resuscitation efforts on the living room floor, the screaming and crying family members surrounding medics. He remembers how the efforts were futile because the couple ultimately succumbed to overdoses from methamphetamine that was laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s driving an increase of overdose deaths across the U.S. It’s an epidemic exacerbated by a global pandemic, which also hasn’t spared the valley.

“Day to day, I can forget about it,” he said Tuesday at an event marking the International Overdose Awareness Day. “But as soon as somebody starts talking about a particular topic, these things come back.” 

Last year, fentanyl claimed 219 lives in Clark County, about triple the deaths reported the previous year, according to Metro Police. More worryingly, the 109 deaths reported from Jan. 1 through May were already a 38% spike from last year’s already high figures. 

The 760 total drug overdose deaths in 2020 also were an increase of about 30% compared with 2019, when 591 people were killed by drugs, Metro numbers show. 

Propelling the rise in deaths is that fentanyl is increasingly being ingested, snorted or injected by victims who don’t know the drug is being mixed into counterfeit prescription pills or heroin sold in the streets, said Daniel Neill, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Nevada. 

The synthetic drug made recent headlines when the Southern Nevada Health District announced that it was suspected in five overdose deaths on Aug. 12. 

It’s a crisis that doesn’t discriminate based on age, location or socioeconomic status, officials reiterate. It’s also one that even gives a personal pause for first responders and law enforcement.

Take Velasquez, whose brother has battled a drug addiction and nearly died from an overdose. They were raised in a happy family, he said, adding that if anyone had asked his parents before if one of their sons was susceptible to drug abuse, they would’ve said it was impossible. 

But in such situations, family members are left to wonder, “Did I do enough? Could I have done more? Was I too hard on them?” Velasquez said. 

“Does he know that we love him?” said Velasquez, beginning to break down. His brother is now clean and married with children.

It’s the same for Metro narcotics Lt. Branden Clarkson, who keeps his three young children in mind and the “heartbreaking” thought of them falling prey to the epidemic later in life, if his team didn’t do enough to curtail the problem. 

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue crews regularly respond to overdose calls, said Deputy Chief Dina Dalessio, noting that the “lack of hope” in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, political division and natural disasters augment the substance-abuse crisis. 

Afflicted Americans have fallen into the “depths of despair,” she said.

Her firefighters were dispatched to about 5,000 overdose calls last year, compared with about 4,000 in 2019. Year to date through last week, they have responded to about 3,600, Dalessio said.

During those calls last year, Narcan was administered 1,044 times. With nearly 800 tallied so far in 2021, the total number is bound to “blow last year out of the water,” said Scott Phillips, EMS field coordinator with Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, noting that many others died before help arrived.

Just recently, Phillips responded to a call about an unresponsive patient who’d overdosed with heroin, an opioid. His parents had given him Narcan, he said at Tuesday’s Las Vegas Fire & Rescue event. 

The overdose victim was up and talking by the time we arrived and refused medical aid, Phillips said.

“Before I left, I gave the family another (Narcan kit) for next time, because there will be a next time,” he said at the fire department event. 

“That was a big house on the edge of town, there’s going to be a big house on the edge of town response for this, probably later today. There’s going to be one behind the convenience store down the street, there’s going to be one on my street, there’s going to be one on your street,” Phillips said. “It’s everywhere.

“This is real, and we aren’t winning,” Phillips said repeatedly.

• • •

Naloxone is a safe-for-all-ages Food and Drug Administration-approved antidote that prevents opioids from reaching the brain receptors that shut down breathing during such overdoses, said Brandon Delise, an epidemiologist with the Southern Nevada Health District. The medication and easy training on how to use it is available for free at the district’s pharmacy through federal grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, he said.

The Health District has distributed about 24,000 doses since 2018, Delise said. It may never be known how many people have used it, but it’s “a lifesaver — it does save lives,” he said, “and it’s very important.” Echoing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health District recommends anybody who consumes opioids, either legally or illicitly, or who knows someone who does, has naloxone at their disposal, Delise said. 

The person administering it should check for signs of an overdose, call 911 and then give the overdose victim the medicine. Some people might need more than one dose, and even if they respond to naloxone, the overdose can kick back in, which is why professional medical aid is important. 

The Good Samaritan Immunity Law signed in 2015 by former Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval allows for the widespread use of naloxone and provides immunity from minor drug crimes for those seeking help with an overdose. 

The Health District, which doesn’t take any identifying information, only asks questions related to the use of Narcan, Delise said. They ask: Was it the first usage? How many doses were needed? Did the person get medical help? 

“When they come into the Health District, we want people to feel welcome,” said Delise, who’s been with the agency for five years, noting that although COVID-19 has kept epidemiologists busy, they wear many hats and realize that fentanyl is a serious threat. Data is crucial with combating the issue, said Delise, adding that epidemiologists study the trends they then share with officials and the community.

• • •

Fentanyl is making its way into the U.S. from Mexico, where criminal satellites make it using chemicals shipped from China, the DEA’s Neill said. The powdery substance is increasingly being pressed into pills that resemble legitimate tablets.

Las Vegas is a passing trafficking route, but some of those pills are staying in the valley. “We’re seizing more, which means that there’s more coming through,” Neill said.

Last year, for example, the DEA seized about 50,000 total pills, Neill said. Now, a couple of months ago, agents recovered the same number of pills during a single bust. “That was unheard of,” he said. 

Complicating the problem is that the street value of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which Neill described as being just as dangerous, has dropped, making it more accessible to the community as a whole, Neill said. 

“I have seen and talked to parents that have lost a loved one from anywhere and everywhere, in the valley,” said the 26-year DEA veteran about drug overdoses. “And it breaks your heart.” 

Earlier this year, Metro unveiled the Overdose Response Team, which is dispatched to fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses in an effort to find leads for criminal investigations.  The task force comprises officers, federal agents, analysts and the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

By pursuing drug peddlers aggressively, Lt. Clarkson said that law enforcement want to instill fear in them, helping drop the supply. At the same time, he said, educating the public on the dangers of fentanyl can help reduce demand for the drug. 

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