As the Mayor and Police Chief of the City of Oxnard, we want to express our concerns about the dangers of fentanyl and its growing presence as part of the opioid crisis in Ventura County.
I, Mayor John C. Zaragoza, am a concerned City official, father, and grandfather regarding the increase in teen deaths due to fentanyl-laced pills. For the first time in a decade, overdose deaths among teens in the United States rose dramatically in 2020 and kept rising through 2021.
I have also personally endured the loss of several family members due to fentanyl overdose. This leads me to believe that we, as a community, need to do more to educate our youth at an early age about the dangers of fentanyl.
Chief Jason Benites can attest to the rapid growth of fentanyl overdoses in Oxnard and its threat to the public’s health and safety. During the early years of his career, Oxnard Police Department officers responded to a fraction of drug overdoses than they do today, perhaps one every couple of weeks. Now they are a daily occurrence.
As first responders, Oxnard’s police officers carry Naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid effects. In 2019, they administered Naloxone…
