Santa Barbara County has launched Project Opioid, which focuses on dealing with the opioid crisis by addressing the issues of the people and families affected because of the epidemic.
The goal of the project is to bring all the community leaders together and develop solutions to tackle the opioid crisis in Santa Barbara County. The county has witnessed a high number of overdose deaths recently, which has adversely affected the communities and families.
The community leaders will play an effective role to deal with the crisis as compared to the public safety programs. The leaders would educate the people in the churches by preventing fatalities and future opioid crisis.
A psychologist from the County Sheriff's Office of Santa Barbara said that people use drugs if they have any issue or problem, and using them can be useful to find a solution for the problem.
A commander from Santa Barbara City Police Department said that the people are losing their loved ones due to the epidemic, and thus the project is vital for the safety of the community. He even informed that the people are dying from poisoning as they are unknowingly consuming fentanyl which is a powerful and addictive opioid.
The Mayor of Lompoc City said that the community will not only benefit from learning of different types of treatments and services available but will also support the people suffering from opioid addiction.
People use opiates as a solution for chronic pain, and if one psychologist prescribes the drug, many individuals start using them. Eventually, they develop withdrawal and tolerance to that drug which becomes problematic for them.
Santa Barbara County reported 133 overdose deaths between January 2020 and January 2021, and 7.5% of them were because of fentanyl, which is a powerful opioid used as a pain medication.
