Dr. Gail Newel made her final public appearance as Santa Cruz’s County health officer Thursday evening at a virtual event to discuss the current state of public health in the county. The topics were wide-ranging, from sexually transmitted diseases to opioids and housing.
opioid crisis
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We all want to halt fentanyl-related opioids, but Panetta’s vote to criminalize would keep us in same loop of failure
Retired Santa Cruz physician Helen Nunberg spent decades treating people with addictions and can’t understand why Rep. Jimmy Panetta recently voted for the HALT Fentanyl Act. The act, she says, will lead to harsher criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of fentanyl-related drugs and makes the same mistakes we have been making for decades. “Obviously, what we are doing isn’t working,” she writes. She encourages you to write to your senators and keep President Joe Biden from signing it into law.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Opioid overdoses hit their highest rate in more than a year in Santa Cruz County in May
Santa Cruz County recorded 101 opioid overdoses in May, spiking above the monthly average of 70 to 80 for the previous months of 2023. Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci points to a changing street drug supply as a possible culprit, as the county expects to see more than $20 million in opioid settlement funds over the next decade.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
California confronts the threat of ‘tranq’ as overdose crisis rages
California officials are stepping up efforts to combat the spread of xylazine, a powerful animal sedative that’s increasingly being used by people, often with devastating results. It’s mostly been an East Coast phenomenon, but “tranq,” as it is known, is beginning to appear in the Golden State.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Opioid overdose meds will soon be available over the counter in Santa Cruz, but accessibility issues remain
A new opioid overdose-reversing drug called Opvee is expected to be available over the counter later this year. Santa Cruz County health officer Dr. David Ghilarducci sees the addition of a new drug to the arsenal of tools to combat the opioid crisis as a positive development. But some are concerned about how much the treatment will cost and whether insurance will cover it.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Three decades, 10,000 babies and one pandemic later, county health officer Gail Newel announces retirement
Dr. Gail Newel is officially making her four-year stint as Santa Cruz County health officer the final chapter of her 30-plus-year career in the health care sector. Though the COVID pandemic made the role more challenging than she could have ever thought, she says she’s grateful that she could finish her career serving the community through hardship: “I was the right person, at the right place, at the right time.”
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Loneliness is an epidemic, and the health risks are ‘profound,’ U.S. surgeon general warns
Isolation and loneliness are an epidemic as damaging to Americans’ individual and public health as smoking and obesity, the surgeon general said in an advisory.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
SafeRx brings professionals, youth together to distribute Narcan, break down stigma
“There is absolutely a risk that is lessened by having Narcan,” one student told Lookout at a drive-thru Narcan distribution event put on by substance-use safety coalition SafeRx as the risk of fentanyl and other opioids continues to stalk Santa Cruz County. “You know, a lot of students in general use drugs and I think having that resource is definitely necessary. I think it’s inevitable that someone my age is going to at least encounter it, so knowing what to do is really important.”
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Push continues to get opioid-reversal meds into more hands around Santa Cruz County
The Santa Cruz Surgery Center is partnering with the Health Improvement Partnership of Santa Cruz County and the county’s Health Services Agency to give physicians a kit including fentanyl antagonist naloxone for use in the community, and HIP is hosting an April 22 event at Cabrillo College where any county resident can pick up and learn more about Narcan.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
As fentanyl deaths surge in California, lawmakers kill bills that would punish dealers
Saying they want to decrease California’s prison population, lawmakers kill bills to increase criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers.