On Saturday, March 23, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich announced he had secured $400 million in funding to aid in the detection, inspection, and seizure of fentanyl and other narcotics to help address the fentanyl crisis around the country. The bill requires the Department of State to designate a Counter-Fentanyl Coordinator and funds the Fentanyl Results Act. The bill also includes $10 million for task forces and $6 million for maritime operations specifically designed to counter fentanyl trafficking. The bill is currently waiting for President Biden’s signature to pass.
Last week, Heinrich held a virtual press conference entitled “Tackling the Fentanyl Crisis” in which he discussed the ways that local and federal government, law enforcement agencies, and community health organizations are working together to combat the fentanyl epidemic in New Mexico.
In a statement to The Independent, Senator Heinrich said, “The gap in access to emergency life-saving services, pharmacies, and prenatal care in rural communities is unacceptable and has serious impacts that are exacerbated by the fentanyl epidemic. I’m committed to delivering the resources that will help people in Sandoval County and rural communities across New Mexico recover from substance use dependence and survive fentanyl overdoses,” he said “I won’t stop fighting until we deliver the resources our law enforcement officers, first responders, medical providers, and New Mexicans need to address this deadly epidemic.”
According to a report from the 2022 New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, fentanyl has driven the increase in drug overdose deaths since 2019, though overdose deaths involving methamphetamines have also increased. In 2021, 574 New Mexicans died from an overdose involving fentanyl, and 488 New Mexicans died from an overdose involving methamphetamines.
This crisis is not unique to New Mexico.
Flooding the market
The El Paso Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which is responsible for the entire state of New Mexico and several counties in Texas, reported that in 2023, 905,471 fentanyl pills and twenty-six pounds of fentanyl powder were seized in New Mexico alone. So far in 2024, they have already seized 388,129 pills and two pounds of powder.
The Independent spoke with Edgewood Police Chief Roger Jimenez and discussed the obstacles that smaller, rural police departments in New Mexico encounter when dealing with the fentanyl crisis. Jimenez believes strongly that the largest stumbling block for Edgewood PD is a lack of funding and resources for officers. He carefully says, “That’s not a knock on the agencie[s]. I think that because of recruiting and hiring processes, it’s hard to get officers… and COVID kind of wrecked public safety in general.”
“Any specific information [the community] can give us is huge, even if they want to remain anonymous… it gives the officer an opportunity to make contact, know who these people are, identify these people, and then we can build a drug case little by little with those contacts and by those calls for service.”
Fentanyl affects all communities throughout the United States, and in Chief Jimenez’s experience, New Mexico is no different. Jimenez worked as the Chief of police in Española from July 2018 to April 2021 during the height of a major heroin epidemic in Northern New Mexico and saw an “almost overnight” shift from heroin use to fentanyl use. “When you can buy a synthetic opioid for a fraction of the cost, that’s usually what is going to flood the market.” The street value of one fentanyl pill in New Mexico is sold for as little as two dollars.
Jimenez is unwavering in his belief that jailing drug offenders is another essential component in combatting the fentanyl crisis in the state. “Typically when [offenders] are in jail, they clean up. They sober up. People keep thinking of incarceration as inhumane and we’re locking them up and throwing away the key. But they don’t understand that a lot of times, we save people because there is no other option,” Jimenez said.