Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announces a new task force to combat the fentanyl crisis in Utah in Cottonwood Park in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Credit: Office of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox)
With a record amount of fentanyl flooding the country and more Utahns dying from overdoses than ever before, the state is launching a new task force that Gov. Spencer Cox says will “disrupt” the drug market.
Cox and other state law enforcement officials announced the task force on Tuesday, speaking on the heels of some sobering new data. In 2018, authorities in Utah seized 15,000 fentanyl pills — in 2023, law enforcement recovered roughly 2 million. That same year, 606 people died of a fatal overdose, a record number, with 290 believed to be fentanyl related. As of June, nearly 35% of the state crime lab’s drug submissions tested positive for fentanyl.
“The true extent of fentanyl related cases is likely underreported,” Cox said, speaking from Cottonwood Park near Salt Lake City’s Jordan River Trail, a hotbed for drug activity. In the last 30 days, Salt Lake City police officers made 102 arrests along the trail, many of them resulting in fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, drug paraphernalia and weapons seizures, according to the department…