SALT LAKE CITY — While fentanyl fatal overdoses are down across the country, they remain on the rise in Utah with a new state task force trying to bring those numbers down.
Utah is one of just five states that reported an increase in fentanyl-related deaths.
“That's not acceptable, right, for us in the state of Utah. We can do better and we should do better,” said Utah Commissioner of Public Safety Jess Anderson at the inaugural meeting of the task force Thursday.
Anderson added that the number of fentanyl overdose deaths in the state was its highest ever last year.
“It's very alarming in the fact of what we're seeing from the just the last few years, unlike any other drug that we've really had experiences with, with within that illegal market,” the commissioner added.
Although Salt Lake County has the highest number of overdoses, data shows Uintah County has the highest rate of overdoses when adjusted for population.
“It's in all stretches of our state," Anderson said. "It's in the smallest of communities, as well as right here ... along the metro front. Nobody's immune to that.”
It wasn’t all bad news though.
“The numbers really tell the story on its own, and I think that we have seen such a sharp increase in fentanyl overdoses, that it's really taken away from the successes that we've had in reducing other overdoses, specifically like prescription opioids,” said Megan Broekemeier, the fatal drug overdose research coordinator with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
Broekemeier says public awareness is vital to saving lives.
“Understanding that overdose is preventable," she explained. "In that, we all have a piece. And in doing that, and preventing overdoses. It's like the first step.”
The task force’s first step will be to create working groups to analyze data, as well as ones to come up with prevention treatment and recovery plans, perform outreach and education, and find ways for law enforcement to better protect Utahns.
