Locally-produced documentary sheds light on fentanyl crisis

Olympia-based TVW has created a 30-minute documentary sounding the alarm about the fentanyl crisis as it affects Washington State.

“The Fentanyl Crisis,” part of TVW's "Washington to Washington" series, features interviews with a wide range of people involved in the fight against the opioid: politicians who are working to deal with the fentanyl crisis, health officials in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, those working with tribal groups to deal with fentanyl addiction, and more.

One family’s tragedy

It tells the heartbreaking story of one family: mother Maria Petty, who lost her son Lucas at age 16 to fentanyl that had been surreptitiously laced into his only experience smoking pot in 2022. She has fought ever since to help prevent other families from facing the same tragedy.

The video also shared that on March 19, 2024, Washington’s governor signed the Lucas Petty Act into law. It was a bipartisan bill adding opioid education to public school health curriculum. “I want his name not just to be someone who died from fentanyl, but someone whose name means fighting fentanyl,” Petty remarked.

Resources shortage, fentanyl facts

The documentary also shines a spotlight on the lack of resources and treatment options in Washington, where 25 of 39 counties do not even have a fentanyl treatment program. That figure includes Thurston County’s neighbor to the northwest, Mason County, which holds the unfortunate title of the county with the most fentanyl overdoses statewide, yet it lacks a permanent treatment program. Fentanyl treatment programs administer medication daily and provide counseling to people addicted to the lethal drug.

The film also provides eye-opening facts and figures. Fentanyl is a synthetically created opioid that is 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Washington is the eighth-highest state in the nation in terms of per capita fentanyl overdoses and is the fastest-growing in the crisis. Fentanyl has largely surplanted heroin and prescription drugs as illegal street drugs leading to overdoses.

Successes, failures

The war on fentanyl has seen successes and failures, and much work remains to be done, the interviewees in the video shared. For instance, Mason County is receiving assistance with a mobile facility from Evergreen Treatment Services that goes to Shelton.

Some laws addressing fentanyl have been passed, but others failed, and both political parties have been involved. In Olympia, state legislation against addicted parents exposing their children to it failed when the Democrats wouldn’t pass it as a penalty against drug addicts.

In the U.S. Congress, a bipartisan bill that would have given more money and resources to U.S. border agents at the Mexican border to screen incoming cars for fentanyl was blocked by a group of Republicans because of other measures in the same bill. 

Washington’s position as a fentanyl hotbed stems from the drug’s path into the country. David Reames, USFDA Special Agent in Charge in Seattle, recounted the drug’s entry and distribution. The source of fentanyl has shifted from China to powerful Mexican drug cartels, and the opioid has been transported up the I-5 corridor (often via private passenger cars, but also by other vehicles) -- through Olympia and Thurston County -- to Seattle, a distribution hub.

Reames explained, “When you hear the word lab, you kind of think some sort of pharmaceutical company in the clean environment. The truth of this is, these are just dirty places in the jungle for their mixing chemicals together to create fentanyl.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (4^th District of Washington) noted that a lot of it ends up in Yakima County, in his Congressional district, which (along with Seattle) has become a major nationwide distribution center. In 2023 he launched the Central Washington Fentanyl Task Force. “The members include law enforcement and medical personnel working on the front lines of the crisis,” he said in the video.

What is the solution to this crisis? U.S. Sen. Patty Murray stated, “There is no one single solution. We would all just like these drugs off the streets and not have them come into our country. That's obviously one thing, but we have a lot of people who are addicted, who are getting access, so we need treatment. We need help with recovery. We need preventative services. We need folks on the street in these communities who are helping the people one-on-one.”

The documentary concludes with some sobering and some hopeful information. Reames pointed out that seven of 10 fentanyl pills seized by the USFDA contain lethal doses of the drug. While it sounds like poor business practice to kill off one’s clientele, he explained that the cartels are elevating doses because their primary client base needs stronger and stronger doses as they build tolerance to the drug.

Furthermore, Newhouse stated that ever-younger children are becoming involved, with his task force seeing kids as young as 10 involved with fentanyl.

Reames remarked that via encrypted social media, teens are ordering fentanyl and overdosing.

Local signs of hope

But there are signs of hope. In Thurston County’s next-door neighbor to the east, Pierce County, students at Clover Park High School are taking action against fentanyl. They obtained a grant and made a four-part video series warning their peers of the dangers. One student, Ava, explained, “most people that are dying from it don’t even know they are taking fentanyl,” because of the way it is frequently mixed with other drugs.

The students’ videos, along with audio and PDF images and text, are available at their website, fentanylfacts.org/shareable-messages/.