SAN YSIDRO, Calif. (KGTV)—17-year-old Connor White’s story is sad but similar to many others.
“It’s not so much an overdose as it is an actual poisoning,” Matt White said.
His father Matt told ABC 10News it’s one of fentanyl taking his son’s life in 2021.
"Because an overdose is, I’m doing as much as I can, and poisoning is, I didn’t know this was going to kill me," White said. "And that’s kind of the scenario that Connor…he got the pill had too much fentanyl in it.”
The California National Guard’s Counter Drug Task Force is doubling in size.
It’s going from 155 service members to nearly 400 statewide, including at the ports of entry.
“Anything that we can do to try to stem the flow across the border of the illegal drug is, you know, is admirable. I mean, something needs to happen,” White said.
Newsom’s office said the task force supports personnel at the ports of entry to stop drug trafficking, gathers information and builds cases on the illegal activity.
“I think it looks great for the governor on paper,” Tara Stamos-Buseing, Founder and CEO of Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego, said.
While she is supportive of the state and local efforts to help address substance abuse, Stamos-Buseing said she’d like to see the effort shift more toward prevention programs.
“Proportionately, those dollars are nothing like that we are sending to the militarization of things, and that’s where those things need to be addressed. We cannot cut out public health. We cannot cut out access to life-saving interventions,” Stamos-Buseing said.
The governor’s office said a record of more than 62,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized in operations backed by Cal Guard last year.
