Gov. Lujan Grisham is calling for a special session to address the public safety issues plaguing our state. The best way she can accomplish her goal of making New Mexico safer is to tackle the growing opioid epidemic here in this state.
In Española, we have seen firsthand for generations that the failure of leaders to address this issue has caused compounding problems of rising crime, homelessness, and other social problems that have made our lives harder.
While the heroin usage spikes we saw during my childhood and early adulthood wreaked havoc on my beloved hometown, it pales in comparison to what has happened with fentanyl.
The fentanyl-based pills known by their street name “blues” are more abundant than any other drug I have seen in my lifetime. Often selling for less than a cup of coffee, the ability for dealers to manufacture the drug has far outpaced the ability of law enforcement to keep up.
Combine that with the fact that our court systems have made it very difficult to actually be convicted and sent to jail or prison for possession or dealing, and we have created a situation that has caused a whole new generation to become addicted.
For this special session, Senators Greg Baca and Crystal Brantley have proposed legislation for the Governor’s Special Session that would increase the penalty for selling or distributing fentanyl. I would urge the governor and my State Senator Leo Jaramillo to please work with them on this.
Everyday the impacts of this crisis are coming into every aspect of life here in Northern New Mexico. In the city, we have sharps containers in my childhood parks like Valdez Park and Ranchitos Park. Some of our retailers are putting limits on the sale of tin foil because some addicts use it to smoke fentanyl. You often see discarded burned pieces of tin foil littered throughout the city.
Enforcement and cracking down on these dealers will increase the cost of doing business and hopefully raise the cost of these narcotics. Longer and harsher prison sentences will disrupt distribution chains and seniority that are allowing the drug to become cheaper and cheaper.
If anything has been made clear the last few years is that the increase in harm reduction, prevention, and recovery alone isn’t enough to curb this issue.
We desperately need more enforcement and prosecutions.
We need bipartisan solutions and stop making a culture war out of the response.
We need more jails so that less criminals are caught and released.
Finally we need to admit that there are no monocausal solutions or explanations, addiction is complicated and it is going to take time and nuance to tackle.
Sam LeDoux is an Española City Councilor for the 4th District.