As social services and medical providers struggle to deal with fentanyl overdoses, xylazine’s movement from east to west in the U.S. has spawned a new crisis in the making. “Xylazine creates all these other crazy issues like lesions and breaking down of the skin and tissue,” said EMS medical director Dr. David Ghilarducci. “It cuts off the blood supply in your skin, so the skin just dies like gangrene.”
James Dobbins
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Fentanyl in Santa Cruz, Part 2: Fentanyl response, redoubling efforts as the crisis doubles
Santa Cruz’s record fentanyl-related death toll last year doubled the total for 2022. But are overdose deaths still worsening in 2024? We don’t know. The county’s coroner declined an interview with Lookout, and her office has not shared its latest statistics. Still, whether the current trend is up or down, the fentanyl overdose grows in […]
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Fentanyl in Santa Cruz, Part 1: With fentanyl deaths doubling, Coral Street is a ‘hot spot’
Last year, the synthetic opioid fentanyl claimed the lives of 133 people in Santa Cruz County. Fentanyl-related deaths doubled from the 66 recorded in 2022 and exceeded those who died in the county from traffic crashes, suicides and homicides combined, a grim statistic Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart revealed in a Facebook post in […]
Posted inWatsonville / Pajaro
How Pastor Dan and Watsonville’s Westview Church became a center of homeless help
In the heart of Watsonville, a small church is playing an expanding role in the homeless crisis. What started as an effort to feed the unhoused population along the Pajaro River is expanding into a mini-village of 34 microhomes behind Westview Presbyterian Church that will also host social services. Construction is set to start next month with the goal of housing residents by December.