San Joaquin County officials are set to host a fentanyl awareness town hall meeting next week in Stockton.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin or the opioid morphine, which is typically used to treat severe pain, according to San Joaquin County Public Health Services.
The event will take place Monday, Oct. 9, at the Wentworth Education Center, located at 2707 Transworld Drive, and will feature a keynote speaker, a panel presentation, dinner and dessert, and end with Narcan training and distribution. Narcan is a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses.
“The dangers of fentanyl are real, and too many young people in San Joaquin County have suffered from fentanyl overdoses.” Troy Brown, San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools
The keynote speaker for the meeting is Tony Hoffman, who is an author and one of the most requested mental health and substance use speakers in the country, and the panel will include substance use disorder physician Dr. David N. Araiza from Community Medical Centers as well as Ashlee Zarou from Central Valley California High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
CVC HIDTA assists federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas that have been determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions.
In 2022, 982,000 doses or pills of fentanyl were seized in the county, an amount that weighed over 20 pounds, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
“The dangers of fentanyl are real, and too many young people in San Joaquin County have suffered from fentanyl overdoses,” San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools Troy Brown said in a statement. “We can make a difference if we work together, not just as organizations, but as individuals. It is important to be informed and to talk to our children about the dangers of fentanyl and drug use.”
San Joaquin County Public Health Services, the San Joaquin County Opioid Safety Coalition, the San Joaquin County Office of Education, and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office will come together to host the meeting.
Last year’s town hall meeting about fentanyl had a large attendance of parents and students and led to a sharp increase in the distribution of Narcan, according to Rachel Zerbo, a public health educator with the San Joaquin County Opioid Safety Coalition.
The event will run from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and will be livestreamed on SJCOE’s YouTube channel.
Victoria Franco is a reporter based in Stockton covering San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its nonprofit news site Local News Matters. She is a Report for America corps member.
