As U.S. drug overdose deaths declined by 3% nationally between 2022 and 2023, Washington state saw a 21% jump in overdose deaths — the vast majority linked to opioids — over the same time span, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Northwest Washington, that trend was most pronounced in Whatcom County, with the rate of deaths per capita exceeding the statewide average for the first time in 2022, according to a new report released this week by U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, an Arlington Democrat.
One of the biggest changes in the Pacific Northwest, including Whatcom and Skagit counties, is the increase of fentanyl and its potency. Laboratory testing done by the Drug Enforcement Agency in 2023 showed that 7 out of 10 pills examined contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl, an increase from 4 out of 10 pills in 2021.
The report, “The Opioid Crisis in Washington’s Second Congressional District and a Comprehensive Solution,” was created to understand how pre-pandemic tools for combating the opioid crisis are being used in a new drug landscape dominated by fentanyl — and to support and bolster local efforts.
Larsen explained that before 2020, real progress was being made in combating opioids in local communities on all major fronts, from prevention and interdiction to treatment and recovery.
“The pandemic blew a hole in a lot of the work that we’re doing,” Larsen told Cascadia Daily News staff in a Wednesday meeting.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, killing more than 78,000 Americans between June 2022 and 2023, according to CDC estimates.
Larsen said the jump in fentanyl use in the Pacific Northwest follows the trend of other illicit drugs.
“A lot of these things start on the East Coast,” Larsen said. “We saw that with meth. We saw that with prescription drug abuse. We saw that heroin. And, I think, we see [that] with fentanyl as well.”
The Whatcom Gang and Drug Task Force seized 559,396 fentanyl pills in 2022, roughly 25 times the amount seized in 2020, according to the report.
“The Task Force found that the significant drop in the price of fentanyl in Bellingham helped drive this trend,” the report stated. Some pill costs have dropped as low as 50 cents per pill in the Pacific Northwest.
The report noted that 35% of all injury deaths in Whatcom County in 2022 were from overdoses and 11% of all injury hospitalizations were for non-fatal overdoses. This is a significant increase from the prior year, based on Washington State Department of Health data.
Skagit County also saw a steep increase in opioid deaths starting in 2020, with overdoses accounting for 29% of all injury deaths in 2022, according to the state data.
The report highlights the vulnerability of both veterans and tribal members to opioid use disorder. It notes that American Indian and Alaska Native residents in Washington have the highest rate of death from synthetic opioid overdose, while overdose mortality rates among veterans increased by 53% between 2010 and 2019.
Though the numbers in the Northwest “jump out,” Larsen said the basic tools needed to combat the crisis aren’t that different from what was needed pre-pandemic, when communities were dealing with methamphetamines, heroin and other opioids.
The congressman’s report outlines a holistic approach to combating the opioid crisis, addressing prevention, interdiction, treatment and recovery.
It outlines specific policy recommendations for each, ranging from the need to pass the Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act and creating a “Behavioral Health and Substance Use Worker Retention Fund,” to establishing dedicated funding that states can distribute to multi-jurisdictional drug task forces.
Larsen said that the report will be his team’s work plan as they move forward, adding that he would be distributing it to other members of Congress as a template for organizing their own efforts.
It was designed to let communities know that he understands that the opioid crisis remains a significant problem, he added.
Additionally, it was created to start building momentum that was stalled out during the pandemic. That includes changing how people think about the issue, from recognizing that addiction is not necessarily a jailable offense to reinforcing the idea that jails are not mental health facilities or detox centers.
But he said he had no illusions that even the multi-pronged attack outlined in the report will be a silver bullet.
“These will contribute to the solution,” Larsen said, “but it won’t be the ultimate resolution.”
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
