UC San Diego Health, city garner partnership to fight opioid addiction

Amber Coakley
·2 min read
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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The opioid war has been raging for two decades and it’s not easing. The opioid death statistics in San Diego jump out as the deadliest for anyone between the ages of 18 to 45 years old.

“Here in our own backyard, our county in the last 8 years has seen 3583 people lose their lives,” said Marni Von Wilpert, a councilmember from the city of San Diego.

Once the addiction has started, it appears the chaos keeps going.

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“Just in this quarter of this year, over 400 San Diegans have been present in our emergency departments with opioid overdoses,” said Dr. Nick Macchione from UC San Diego Health.

Now the city is starting to fight back by using part of the $40 million in lawsuit funds that opioid companies have paid to the city for the damage they have caused to the local community.

USCD and the city of San Diego are now working at the bedside of those overdose patients who are lucky enough to wake up. Roughly $350,000 is being set aside for peer counselors to intercept drug users to turn around their lives before they just become another statistic or another overdose “frequent flyer.”

“The revolving doors of ambulance rides, firetruck calls, 911 response to the emergency room, back to the street, back to the home, back to the street — it needs to stop,” said Von Wilpert.

The city of San Diego will also be funding a million-dollar education program to help prevent people from ever experimenting with the life-ruining drug. Experts say fentanyl is the number one killer and it’s a drug that has devastated people from every walk of life.

“A family member, a friend, a cousin, an uncle, a mom, a son — it’s affected my family as well,” said Von Wilpert.

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