PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — As leaders work to tackle the fentanyl crisis in Southwest Washington, officials met Friday to address the impact of fentanyl and overdose deaths in Cowlitz County. According to the CDC, Washington had the single-highest increase of reported drug overdose deaths among the states from August 2022-August 2023.
“I just turned 39. I’ve been an addict since I was 9 years old. I started with marijuana and it went to meth when I was 13. By the time I was 15, I was doing heroin,” John Nash, a recovering addict, said. “Six years ago, it went from heroin to fentanyl because of the availability and the thing with fentanyl is it does exactly what it was made to do.”
Nash’s story is just one of many highlighting the devastation of the drug crisis, especially as fentanyl sweeps the country.
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“You were either heroin or meth, not both. And now we’re just seeing that everyone is doing fentanyl. There’s no distinction anymore,” Cowlitz Co. Corrections Director Marin Fox said. “We’re just literally trying to keep people alive and it’s harder than it’s ever been.”