Los Angeles city leaders say they will tackle a fentanyl addiction crisis that is consuming L.A.’s MacArthur Park, which has become a hub for fentanyl sales and consumption in the midst of the heavily Latino working-class neighborhood of Westlake.
The neighborhood is facing devastating consequences for people who use the synthetic opioid and the community forced to adapt to life around it.
Mom and pop shopkeepers suffer from a spike in shoplifting fueled in part by people seeking money to buy fentanyl. People overdose and die. Residents of Westlake live in one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles, but they are losing their access to vital public park space.
A Southern California News Group’s investigative series published in late August found that the fentanyl addiction crisis has severely impacted MacArthur Park and Westlake, prompting Los Angeles officials to describe the situation as “devastating.”
“It reinvigorated my fight and our district’s fight to make sure that we can tackle an area that is now ground zero for overdoses,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents MacArthur Park, after reading the investigation.
“We’re experiencing over four overdoses just in that one neighborhood every single day.”
The SCNG investigation centered on a community where substance use services and homeless services are falling short of the mushrooming need.
“I feel like the lack of light on our neighborhood and a lack of prioritization is felt on the ground and it is incredibly frustrating,” Hernandez said. “Especially because of how many people are dying.”
Mayor Karen Bass said the fentanyl epidemic is a “matter of life and death” that necessitates a rapid response.
“The level of addiction happening in areas of our city and the deaths that it is causing are devastating,” said Bass, in a statement responding to the newspaper’s investigation published on August 28. “We will continue to work…
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