(KGTV) — California's Attorney General toured the Mexico border in Otay Mesa Monday. AG Rob Bonta met with local and state leaders to talk about the progress in battling the state's Fentanyl epidemic.
It's an epidemic an Escondido family knows all too well.
Kai Atesalp was a star wrestler at Escondido High School. Last summer, he was weeks away from heading to college on an athletic scholarship. His parents say their son bought what he thought was Percocet; it was laced with Fentanyl. The 18-year-old was found dead in his bed by his younger sister.
Kai is one of 815 people who died last year in San Diego County from a fentanyl overdose. More than two people a day. Still, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan says that number shows progress.
"That is one too many, but for the first time, the trend is evening; we are stopping those terrible increases that were increasing year after year," said Stephan at Monday's news conference.
Bonta says his office, along with local and state partners, is committed to tackling the fentanyl epidemic.
"Illicit Fentanyl, unfortunately, is indiscriminate. It affects everyone. No one is immune. Any and every community, rural or suburban , coastal inland, south, central, no one is immune," said Bonta.
Bonta says seizures of Fentanyl at the California border with Mexico are skyrocketing.
In 2020, nearly 5,000 pounds of the drug was confiscated. In 2023- agents seized 27,000 pounds. The attorney general says since his office started a new enforcement program three years ago, agents have seized more than 11 million Fentanyl pills, more than 3,000 pounds of powder and made just under 300 arrests.
"We have cartels and drug traffickers who are focused on profit and profit margin. With Fentanyl, they have a drug that is relatively inexpensive to make, incredibly potent, and very lethal," said Bonta.
Law enforcement says they'll continue to focus on education and making Narcan more available. The DA says those efforts are beginning to pay off. The number of kids dying from fentanyl overdoses in San Diego is down.
In 2021, twelve kids died, six in 2022, and two died last year.
