The annual OD Free Marin event followed a recent county alert about a spike in fentanyl overdoses.
Colin McLorg grew up in Marin County, where he has a loving family and attended great schools.
“No real reason to fall into the trap of addiction,” he said. “Except for the fact that I have a genetic predisposition.”
McLorg, who said he has had a long struggle in and out of recovery, credited people for saving him from overdoses by administering the medication naloxone. Some of those people were other addicts.
McLorg said he’s been sober for the past three years and manages a drug and alcohol recovery center.
“I got to see them recover and get their children back in their lives,” he said.
McLorg shared his experiences Wednesday at an annual community forum held online by OD Free Marin, an organization combatting substance abuse. More than 80 people attended the teleconference, which focused on preventing drug overdoses, namely those related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“Overdose death is touching every community, every demographic, family members, friends, the unsheltered, the most privileged,” Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice said at the forum. “It is leaving in its wake unimaginable grief and too many lives cut short.”
Representatives from health and community organizations such as the Marin Treatment Center introduced the outreach and treatment services they offer.
Monica Grant, a community liaison for the Marin County Cooperation Team, said that her nonprofit distributed more than 1,100 Narcan kits since July. Narcan is a naloxone delivery product.
OD Free Marin distributed 7,988 Narcan kits via vending machines across the county in the past three years, according to its presentation Wednesday. The organization is also distributing test strips that can detect fentanyl in drugs.
The forum followed Marin County’s first public health alert on fentanyl overdoses. The alert came after a five suspected fentanyl-related overdoses within 10 days in February.
Fentanyl is known to be mixed with narcotics such as cocaine and methamphetamine. The opioid is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Drug Enforcement Administration says fentanyl that is trafficked into the United States primarily comes from China and Mexico.
Dr. Matthew Willis, Marin County’s public health officer, said at the forum that drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Marin County residents under age 55. He added that the county is losing one resident per week to a drug overdose and that fentanyl was involved in six to seven out of every 10 fatal overdoses.
“It is not an exaggeration to call it a crisis,” he said.
Willis said there have been 66 nonfatal drug overdoses so far in Marin County this year. Last year, there were 463.
Willis said there were approximately 65 to 70 fatal overdoses in the county last year, although some coroner’s investigations are still pending. He noted that fatal overdoses doubled between 2018 and 2021.
“That was when fentanyl really entered into the marketplace and into our environment, and has created a new wave of the crisis,” Willis said.
One fentanyl-related death in Marin County last year led to the arrest of a Santa Rosa man who is accused of supplying the opioid. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and could face four years in prison if convicted.
OD Free Marin’s goals for this year are to see a 10% drop in fatal drug overdoses in the county; a 10% boost in residents enrolled in medical treatment for opioid addictions; and a 10% increase in cases where emergency medical responders help an overdose patient who was already treated with Narcan by a bystander.
OD Free Marin plans to have a board review overdose cases and see how overdoses can better be prevented; see a community response team address public health challenges and access to treatment in select areas; and run a system that alerts the public to increased risk of drug overdoses.
Willis plans a presentation on the fentanyl issue as part of National Fentanyl Awareness Day at the Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 7.
