ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
Gov. Cox announces task force to combat ‘skyrocketing’ fentanyl crisis in Utah
Oct 15, 2024, 7:00 PM
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesday announced a new task force to combat the fentanyl crisis in Utah, which has seen a "skyrocketing" number of pill seizures. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Mysti Lopez grew up surrounded by a history of addiction that “runs deeply” on both sides of her family.
Her dad was a heroin addict and her mother struggled with methamphetamine addiction, according to Lopez, who said every member of her family was impacted by addiction in one way or another.
“Despite telling myself I’d never be like them, I eventually found myself walking the same path,” she told reporters at Cottonwood Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. “Heroin was my first escape, but fentanyl quickly followed. It was easy to get — too easy, in fact.”
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Falling into the “trap” of fentanyl — a synthetic opioid that has exploded in popularity across the U.S. in recent years — was easy, she said, but getting out was much harder. Finding the drug is so easy, she explained, she could probably find someone selling it within a 5- or 10-minute walk along the nearby Jordan River Trail.
Lopez eventually found herself getting clean, thanks to an arrest that landed her in drug court, which she described as a divine intervention. She has now been sober for 3½ years and helped start a virtual outpatient recovery center for those struggling with addiction.
“It means everything to me,” she said. “I’ve got all my kids in my home now, and I’m giving them a place of safety and a place of hope and teaching them how to live a life without substance use as a coping skill. So, just really showing up and being present — which is the biggest part.”
While Lopez’s story has so far been a positive one, many Utahns are not so lucky. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said state troopers have seen a dramatic increase in fentanyl pills seized, and the state has seen a growing number of deaths by overdose. Six years ago, in 2018, troopers recovered 1,600 doses of fentanyl, he said. In 2020, that number rose to about 15,000, before jumping to nearly 2 million last year.
Read the full story from KSL.com here.
