The latest overdose numbers this year in Rio Arriba and Santa Fe Counties are a harsh reminder that the opioid crisis in the Española Valley is far from over. Despite an overall decrease in New Mexico at large, Rio Arriba remains one of the highest in the country and there was a devastating 16% increase in Santa Fe County. As the legislative session begins we must understand that the heart of our crime and homelessness issues stem directly from the drug problem. We cannot effectively target any of these issues until we a hold on the supply of fentanyl flooding our communities.
I don't see eye to eye with Governor on every issue, but I truly appreciate her call for some public safety solutions. I also applaud the Republicans in the state legislature working to try and end the revolving door that is our current justice system is refreshing. Locally in Española it is more obvious than ever that getting rid of our city jail was a mistake. Rio Arriba and Santa Fe County have made it difficult to jail anyone from the city by refusing our inmates, cities need to take our control back. Hopefully the legislature will help us by making it easier to enforce laws and funding projects like new construction of city jails. Our city council said in our policy workshop last year that a new jail is our number one priority, however I have heard of no progress on this front.
I also hope at the state and federal level we can finally see some progress on limiting the supply of fentanyl coming in by securing our border and expanding drug enforcement efforts. I am scared we are on the brink of a dual drug crisis as meth has started to spread in our beautiful valley. It's going to take every government entity pooling their resources to do this, federal, state, county, pueblo, and city. We can no longer afford to focus on what divides us and make a stronger and safer future for our valley and state. Our kids can't afford for us to wait, we cannot sacrifice another generation to drugs.
Sam LeDoux is a city councilor from Española, New Mexico.
