City of Santa Maria
Santa Maria, California
Proclamation
WHEREAS, “Fentanyl Awareness Day” is a day of education to raise public awareness that people are dying at alarming rates due to illicitly manufactured drugs mixed with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, to increase potency, and pressed into pills made to look like legitimate pharmaceutical drugs; and
WHEREAS, the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths are fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, and over 150 people die every day from overdos es related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl; and
WHEREAS, fentanyl is odorless, tasteless, cheap, and extremely potent, 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine . The number of opioid -related deaths involving fentanyl spec ifically increased from 12 in 2019 to 115 overdose deaths in 2022; and
WHEREAS, it is becoming more common for individuals to use drugs without knowing it contains fentanyl and overdose as a result; and
WHEREAS, overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl tripled nationally among teenagers in the last two years; and
WHEREAS, signed into law by Governor Newsom in October 2023, Assembly Bill 701 allows the penalties for fentanyl trafficking to mirror those of Schedule I drugs such as heroin and cocaine; and
WHEREAS, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley Coalition will play an important role in highlighting the community-wide efforts to increase awareness and decrease the use of this highly addictive and dangerous drug; and
NOW, THEREFORE, I, ALICE M. PATINO, Mayor of the City of Santa Maria hereby proclaim May 9, 2024, as
“Fentanyl Awareness Day”
in the City of Santa Maria to raise awareness and prevent overdoses caused by fentanyl.
The City of Santa Maria, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley Coalition, and many partners have come together to invite all residents to participate in Fentanyl Awareness Day.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and have caused the Seal of the City of Santa Maria to be affixed hereto this 7th day of May 2024.
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Alice M. Patino, Mayor