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Ventura County sees big drop in drug overdose deaths

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VENTURA COUNTY, Calif.— Jack Moll has struggled with addiction for much of his adult life, starting with Oxycontin and switching to heroin.

“It is very hard, if not impossible, to replicate the feeling of love, belonging, euphoria that you feel when you're loaded on opiates,” said Moll, who grew up in Ventura County.
 
 Gradually Moll became addicted to fentanyl.
 
“Slowly, my drug dealers started integrating fentanyl into their supply and though it was more expensive, I needed less of it to get loaded. So I became very quickly addicted to fentanyl. And it really escalated my trip to to the bottom.,” said Moll.
 
It took Moll 7 years to overcome his drug addiction. Now, he’s helping others reach sobriety. 
 
He says at its core, addiction is a mental health crisis. 
 
“There's often a co-occurring depression, anxiety, bipolar, two disorder, bipolar one, some sort of psychotic feature that maybe preceded the drug use, people weren't treating mental health disorders in tandem with substance use disorder. So now the gold standard is really treating them both together,” said Moll.
 
He also says recovery is a multi-pronged process. 
 
“If you're exploring treatment programs for yourself or a loved one, finding one that specializes in offering medicine, assisted treatment, psychopharmacology, medication management on top of therapy, various therapy modalities,” said Moll.
 
From 2023 to 2024, the CDC says overdose deaths were down 17% from the previous year. 
 
In Ventura County that decline was even more dramatic— 30% in the first 9 months of 2024 when compared with the first 9 months of 2023. 
 
If this trend continues, 2024 will be the year with the fewest overdose deaths in Ventura County since 2019. 

Addiction specialists credit the decline to greater access to education and resources, life saving drugs like Narcan, and a harm reduction philosophy, among other things.
  
“We're really changing, you know, addiction from being like a moral failing into like a disease, a chronic disease that affects millions of Americans. And I think the way as we start to do stigmatize this a lot more, that help is more available to everyone,” said No Matter What Recovery Center Executive Director Mell McCracken.

Experts are cautiously optimistic, but addiction is still a public health crisis.
 
If you are struggling with addiction, experts recommend taking that first step and reach out to an addiction specialist or psychologist. 
 

Article Topic Follows: Top Stories
drugs
fentanyl
narcan
opioid epidemic
opioids
overdose deaths
overdose kits

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Mina Wahab

Arab-American producer & reporter with a mission to dig deep in interviews, share authentically, shed light on the issues that matter, and provoke deep thought.

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