DA calls for action as Stanislaus County records rise in fentanyl poisoning deaths.
Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager said Tuesday that fentanyl is a terrible drug problem and the word needs to get out that it’s a crisis for the community.
Fladager told the county Board of Supervisors at its meeting that fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, threatens most everyone. It’s not only mixed with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to enhance euphoria, but it’s also in counterfeit pills made to look like prescription drugs including Xanax, oxycodone and Adderall.
Legal fentanyl is used in prescription pain medication, but criminal dealers mix large and lethal amounts into drugs sold on the street or through online connections, so taking the drugs or counterfeit pills is like Russian roulette, authorities say.
Victims from drug users to unsuspecting college students think they are getting one type of pill, Fladager said, but they are getting something else and it kills them.
Fladager’s office cleared a hurdle last week in prosecuting what’s charged as a fentanyl homicide, when Anthony Taft Lee, 36, was bound over for trial following a preliminary hearing.
Lee, who is charged with murder, allegedly sold a lethal dose of fentanyl to 21-year-old Connor Hoffmann in May 2021. Hoffmann died May 28, 2021, after purchasing $10 worth of fentanyl from a man he met on Snapchat, his family said. Lee has been held in custody for 15 months.
The District Attorneys office said 176 county residents died from overdose and poisoning deaths in 2021, or three to four deaths a week, an alarming increase tied to fentanyl. Thus far, the data for 2022 suggest that number could be exceeded this year.
Stanislaus County agencies created an Opioid Safety Coalition in 2019 that’s trying to alert the public to the dangers of illicit fentanyl. The coalition held a public forum at the State Theatre in May that wasn’t well attended.
Fladager said there are other prosecutors in California trying to bring homicide charges in fentanyl cases. Typically, the charge in emerging cases is second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life, she said.
Laws in California, such as Assembly Bill 109, mean that a person simply convicted of selling fentanyl illegally won’t be sent to state prison, Fladager said.
According to a District Attorneys Office news release Friday, Modesto police investigated Hoffmann’s death as a homicide because of the surge in fentanyl deaths last year. Evidence found in Hoffmann’s room indicated he had been smoking fentanyl, and an autopsy determined the cause of death was fentanyl intoxication, the news release said.
Investigators found and questioned a person they believe sold the drug to Hoffmann. Lee was arrested Dec. 3 and charged with murder, sale of controlled substances and possession of fentanyl for sale.
After evidence was presented at a preliminary hearing in August, Superior Court Judge Kellee Westbrook called for an additional briefing from prosecution and defense attorneys on the validity of a murder charge in this type of case.
The judge heard oral arguments Sept. 16 and ruled there was sufficient evidence to support a murder charge. Lee was held over for trial in the first-of-its-kind fentanyl case for Stanislaus County.
Fladager said illegal drugs used to be sold on the streets, in parks and alleys, but a student wanting to focus for an exam can get on the phone to order Adderall and have it delivered, not knowing the pills delivered are laced with fentanyl.
Warning about ‘rainbow’ fentanyl
Last month, the California Department of Public Health warned school administrators about a rainbow fentanyl drug that seems to target young people. The potentially fatal pills and powders are in bright colors and shapes that could be attractive for youth, the state agency said.
Fladager called for more effort to make sure families and individuals are aware of the fentanyl crisis, for parents to talk with their kids, and for schools to educate students.
She spoke during the board’s public comment period Tuesday. No board action was taken because it was not an agenda item.
The county’s Opioid Safety Coalition makes naloxone available, which can reverse an overdose or drug poisoning if administered in time. Fentanyl test strips can be used to test items for the presence of fentanyl.
Resources and information on getting naloxone or fentanyl test strips are available by calling county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services at 209-525-5316 or visit the Stanislaus County Opioid Safety Coalition website at StanRX.net.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said there were 176 fentanyl poisoning deaths in Stanislaus County in 2021. That was the total number of drug overdose and poisoning deaths in the county last year.
This story was originally published October 4, 2022 at 2:59 PM.
