Fentanyl is cheap, easily accessible and the leading cause of drug overdoses in Utah. It's why Gov. Spencer Cox is launching a new task force to address the drug’s impact.
During an Oct. 15 news conference at Cottonwood Park along the Jordan River Trail in Salt Lake City, Cox said the goal is to “make life much worse for those who are profiting off of this and try to make life better for those who are suffering from it.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration reported in July that the number of fentanyl pills seized in Utah during the first six months of 2024 broke the record set in 2023.
“Now, sadly, many drug users don’t even realize they’re getting fentanyl laced into the drugs they are taking. This complicates detection and reporting,” Cox said.
“The true extent of fentanyl-related cases is likely under-reported.”
The synthetic opioid has proliferated in drug markets across the U.S. over the last decade. While the number of overdose deaths has fallen nationwide recently, that decrease was not seen in some western states.
According to 2022 data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, fentanyl is responsible for a third of unintentional drug overdose deaths. Cox said there were 606 overdose deaths in 2023 and 290 were fentanyl-related.
Mysti Lopez, who was born and raised in Salt Lake City, has seen the impacts of fentanyl firsthand. She first started using meth at the age of 15. She moved to alcohol, then heroin and finally fentanyl.
“[Fentanyl] was easy to get, too easy. In fact, many times I picked it up right here along the Jordan River Trail,” Lopez said at Cottonwood Park. She guessed that if she went out looking to buy fentanyl along the trail today, it would probably take her five or ten minutes to find it.
After multiple arrests, Lopez went through a residential outpatient program and graduated drug court. As someone who has experienced addiction, she thinks more housing and more resources are key parts of solving the problem. Without a safe and healthy environment, she said it's easy to get stuck in a cycle.
Lopez has been sober for over three years and helps others on their recovery journey. Together with her husband she started a treatment center in American Fork.
Cox emphasized that this is a statewide issue.
“I don't care what size your town is, the smallest towns in Utah are being impacted by fentanyl. The wealthiest neighborhoods in Utah are being impacted by fentanyl.”
The goal of the task force, he said, is “to reduce demand through prevention and treatment, address root causes of fentanyl abuse and disrupt fentanyl trafficking networks.” The effort will be led by Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jess Anderson and will include local, state and federal agencies. It will be funded through state and federal dollars, and will also use money from the state’s opioid settlements.
Cox blamed the rise in fentanyl in Utah on drugs coming through the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Of the many ways that the Biden administration's border policies have been a failure, the fentanyl crisis is the most stark and dangerous. That's not a partisan point of view, but a bipartisan point of view expressed to me by Democratic governors and Democratic members of Congress.”
After the event, Cox’s democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race Rep. Brian King accused him of making the fentanyl crisis a “political prop” in Cox’s bid for re-election. The news conference took place the same day Utah's ballots started being mailed out.
“Instead of addressing the root causes of this tragic epidemic, he used his press conference to parrot anti-immigrant rhetoric and blame rather than deliver real-time solutions,” King said in a statement.
“This issue has been serious for a long time, but suddenly the Governor decides to make a show of it.”