Whatcom sheriff describes opioid’s human toll amid rising overdoses

Fentanyl continues to ravage Whatcom County, Sheriff Bill Elfo said in a grim report that illustrates the human toll of the highly addictive, potent and readily available opioid drug.

In a presentation to the Whatcom County Council’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 27, Elfo said there have been 58 suspected overdose deaths investigated in the first seven months of this year and at least one-third involved fentanyl.

Of those deaths 58 deaths investigated through Aug. 3, there were 37 overdoses confirmed through toxicology and 21 suspected overdose deaths awaiting laboratory confirmation.

“Of the 37 deaths that have been confirmed, 20 involved fentanyl,” Elfo said.

“Prior to January of this year, neither the Medical Examiner’s Office or the hospital routinely checked for fentanyl in death investigations, so we really don’t have anything to compare the numbers to for the previous year to see how the problem is growing,” he said.

In the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s 2021 annual report, there were 50 drug overdose deaths listed in 2021, with fentanyl present in 29 of them. In 2020, there were 43 overdose deaths, with fentanyl found in 19.

Elfo said that the jail’s Medically Assisted Treatment program for opioid users averages 100 patients daily.

“According to the jail physician, in a hallway conversation I had with him several weeks ago, virtually every one of them tests positive for fentanyl,” Elfo said.

“We do know that the price of fentanyl in Whatcom County and across the state has plummeted and the drug is widely available,” he said.

Deputies have made eight arrests of drug sellers on charges of homicide by controlled substance, and of those six cases are pending in the courts, he said.

Ambulance response to OD

Bellingham Fire Capt. Joe Frank, who manages the Community Paramedic Program, told the Bellingham City Council’s Public Safety and Justice Committee that street-level use of fentanyl and carfentanil — a powerful version of the drug intended for animals — has been rising since 2017.

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine, Frank told the committee in a Feb. 28 report.

“It skyrocketed in 2015 and it hasn’t tapered down at all,” Frank said.

In 2021, Bellingham firefighters were dispatched to 539 overdose calls, and 369 of those required ambulance transport.

Naloxone, which reverses the effects of opioids, was administered for a suspected overdose 105 times in 2021, he said.

Meanwhile, the Bellingham City Council voted unanimously on Sept. 12 to join a $518 million opioid settlement that state Attorney General Bob Ferguson reached with three pharmaceutical firms in May.

Bellingham could receive $1.75 to $2 million, payable over 17 years, if Washington cities agree to the terms of the settlement, city spokeswoman Janice Keller told The Bellingham Herald.