The official oversight on this has been horrible. This was first reported over the weekend, I think. In the back pages of the front section of the paper (I don't watch tv news -- the excerpt from "Priest They Called Him", was from Fox 40, of all places, and it is dated today). It may have been mentioned on other stations too, but I started telling people about this last weekend, and no one I told had even heard of it, so clearly there wasn't a coordinated effort to get the news out. Today was the first day it made headline news. They've apparently known about it since last Thursday.
The paper has been reporting on it for several days, but they've buried in the back pages of the front section of the newspaper. And it was played way down -- the paper or the Sheriff's Office or someone wouldn't even confirm that there had been any fatalities until today, although you've gotta figure someone expecting 10 mg of vicodin and getting 80 mg of fentanyl is not likely to have a good experience (the paper said today that the amount of fentanyl was 80 TIMES AS STRONG AS THE NORCO!- I see Fox says it's a hundred times as strong, and a local hospital volunteered that it was 50-100 times more powerful than MORPHINE.). Somebody meant for people to die, and they did. 20 overdoses, including fatalities so far. And the authorities essentially seemed to sit on it for a week. I mean the people I told about it, were exactly the same people who most NEEDED to know about it.
There appear to be cases in neighboring counties as well, so this isn't isolated to Sacramento County. Regrettably, authorities have "no further comment" on that. Just for the record, they appear to believe it's shown up in Contra Costa County, down in east Bay area, just north of Alameda County, although I'd be surprised if it were limited to that county. It's nice that Fox Forty carried info about getting Narfan. The newspaper has not once so much as mentioned the word. In fact, The Sacramento Bee concluded its article by summarizing the overall attitude of officials thusly: "This is a warning to the public. You should not be taking medication that is not prescribed (for you)." Yeah. Way to go, Sacramento. People are going to feel really empowered to seek help with that special kind of sympathy. And that is the Public Health Officer speaking. It sounds like a law enforcement officer but it's actually the person who is supposed to be helping you get help.
It seems to me that the authorities asked the newspaper and news stations NOT to report on it until they could find the people responsible for it. That's what it looks like anyway, and, while I want to be clear that this is nothing but my own speculation, just the idea that the county may have sat on the information to bust the person(s) doing it, is truly disturbing. Sac authorities are now apparently thinking that it is being manufactured in Mexico, and brought in to the States, which seems to be the default position for "we have no idea who is doing this."
I'm recopying the narfan kit information that "Priest They Called Him" posted, since it is the most important piece of information in this whole sad story, and neither the Bee, nor the Sherriff's Department nor the Sacramento Public Health Officer apparently felt it worth repeating:
http://fox40.com/2016/03/28/20-overd...with-fentanyl/
My guess is that the kit is indeed free, but they glean every bit of information they can squeeze out of you before they provide it. If anyone has gotten this kit in Sac Co, I'd like to hear about what was required before they were given it.
Anyway, here is what will be in today's paper later. It appears to contain more new information and new cases:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article68871462.html
