Opinion/Letters to the Editor January, February 2023

Jan. 5 issue:

Guest commentary:

Millions of dollars flowing to San Diego to fight opioid abuse

By Mara W. Elliott, San Diego City Attorney

For years, pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed opioids to doctors and the public, claiming opioids were needed to manage chronic pain, weren’t addictive, and were superior to other pain-relievers.

None of that was true. Instead, America got sick, while the opioid industry got rich.

As patients became addicts, they fueled an underground market for illegally-produced fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, or turned to heroin. Overdoses strained emergency rooms and public-safety services and more than 500,000 Americans lost their lives. San Diego suffered along with the rest of the nation, struggling to combat a health crisis rooted in deception, manipulation, and greed.

While it’s impossible to reverse the damage done by the opioid epidemic, it is possible to hold opioid manufacturers and marketers responsible. In 2019, my office sued a number of companies that were making outrageous profits at the expense of human lives.

Our lawsuit accused the drug companies of circulating false and misleading information about opioids’ safety and efficacy, and downplaying or omitting the risk of addiction and overdose. Opioids can be crucial to help people recover from surgery and to ease terminal illness, but the industry wanted a larger customer base.

We argued that their immoral and unethical behavior caused substantial injury to San Diego taxpayers who absorbed the costs of this public health crisis. Our strategy was to recover those costs and compel the companies to fund drug treatment and education programs to help our addicted population and prevent it from growing.

The legal strategy worked. That lawsuit is part of a multi-party settlement between three opioid distributors and one manufacturer and a number of cities, counties, and states. We expect additional settlements in the future. Our targets include some of the biggest names in the drug industry, who profited in the decades-long fraud.

Throughout this hard-fought three-year battle, your interests were doggedly pursued by my office’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit. Under the terms of the settlement, these funds cannot be used for any purpose other than to address opioid addiction, through health care, drug treatment, and related programs. The City will receive an estimated $30 million over eight years. The first year’s payment is $1,372,352.69.

Although the City Council and Mayor ultimately determine how the proceeds will be spent, it is my hope that the City will use these funds to expand PLEADS (Prosecution and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Services), which is a City program that encourages individuals found under the influence of drugs in public to agree to addiction treatment in lieu of prosecution and jail.

Our first responders are overburdened with emergency calls related to all forms of drug abuse and overdose. This program, founded by my office and the San Diego Police Department in 2019, reduces costly emergency calls and offers a new start to people caught in the cycle of arrest, jail, release, and homelessness.

Even $30 million is a drop in the bucket compared with the economic and human harm caused by these companies, which have not admitted wrongdoing or the role they played in fueling a black market for illicit fentanyl. But at least one company, Johnson & Johnson, has stopped selling prescription opioids and has agreed not to resume.

In the three years we prosecuted our case, America’s opioid problem only worsened. In 2019, more than 3,200 people in California died from opioid overdoses; in 2021, there were 6,843 opioid deaths. In San Diego County alone, 1,637 people went to hospital emergency rooms for opioid overdoses in 2021, and 686 deaths were reported.

We can’t bring back those whose lives were tragically cut short, but we can use this money to provide future treatment, help, and hope for San Diegans impacted by this crisis.

Letters:

Del Mar leadership: Please consider investing in Dog Beach

I would like the Del Mar leadership to consider investing in Dog Beach. This area is one of the most highly utilized areas yet substantially underinvested. The most notable oversight is the lack of permanent bathrooms, the porta-johns are an eyesore next to the beautiful garden. And many times, these are unusable due to their condition. The volleyball community would also benefit from additional sand and leveling of the courts, this could be done in conjunction with the winter dredging.

Encinitas does a great job at Moonlight Beach with bathrooms, showers and clearing the sidewalk of debris and it would be nice to see our local beach have the same appeal.

Kelly Brunsman,

Del Mar

Jan. 19 issue:

The importance of extracurricular activities

Studies have shown that young people who are involved in extracurricular activities, like drama, sports, dance, cheerleading, music, and volunteering tend to stay out of trouble and do better academically. Like those mentioned in the recent article “The tale of two volunteer moms join together to help costume local youth theater”, I was very involved in my hometown’s community Junior Theater during my elementary and junior high years. It was a great afterschool program that taught us cooperation, taking directions, memorizing lines, acting, and self-confidence.

I continued being involved in the drama program at my high school for the entire four years. I wrote to my drama teacher when he retired that what I’d learned had greatly helped me in my career as an educator. As the famous line from Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” goes, “All the world’s a stage” and we are merely players making our entrances and exits.

Mark A. Peter

Member of Thespian Troupe 1425

Solana Beach

Feb. 24 issue:

Possible pool solution for TPHS students

Torrey Pines High School is hoping to have a swimming pool built. The Carmel Valley Recreation Center pool has very limited hours apparently due to inability to get lifeguards. Surely there can be a solution for the school and the City to have the TPHS students use the Carmel Valley pool.

Jean Morgan,

Del Mar

Does anyone remember that we have an ‘Official City Song’ here in Solana Beach?

For me last Wednesday, Feb. 22, was both a day of coincidence and nostalgia. Seventeen years ago, on Wednesday, Feb. 22, Mayor David Powell presided over a unanimous City Council vote to declare “Solana Beach Our City Proud” to be our “Official City Song.” He even mentioned it with pride in his State of the City address, saying,

“We now even have a City Song!” Also, and with due consideration, our present Mayor Lesa Heebner was one of its signatories! It was soon heralded in regional newspapers. I’d love to hear it again at appropriate community events!

It can, like our National Anthem, be done in many genres and can bring even more community spirit to our special town

You can hear some of it on YouTube at 1) Solana Beach Cliff St. Bridge Groundbreaking Feb 28, 2007, and at 2) Solana Beach Our City Proud. It even used to be on the City’s web site.

Just for fun, I’ve celebrated it with the little poem below:

“Seventeen years have passed

In this place we cannot hide The Council’s vote, unanimous David Powell did preside…

Solana Beach, Our City Proud

An idea whose lyrics won,

Would be the tune to have and sing

To know from where we’d come!

It spoke of Fletcher Cove,

Of surf and 101

Of learning how to grow a town, schools, art and music found

So on this special day let’s say

We need to hear it played

The optimists will all agree.

What do you have to say ?”

Lynn Salsberg RN ( inactive)

Solana Beach