Десятилетие совместной работы помогло снизить число передозировок в Южной Неваде, но появились новые угрозы

Decade of collaboration helps lower Southern Nevada overdoses, but new drug threats emerging Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 | 2 a.m. Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español. Drug overdose deaths in Southern Nevada have decreased in recent years, but new, more complex substances emerging have kept experts at the Southern Nevada Health District on alert. Between 2020 and 2025, there were almost 4,000 overdose deaths among Clark County residents, according to health district data. Of those deaths, only 3.5% — or 138 cases — involved novel substances, meaning drugs that had not been previously identified by local drug experts. Brandon Delise, an epidemiologist at the health district, said the percentage may be small, but it points to a larger problem. Only 2% of overdose deaths in 2020 tested positive for a novel substance; by 2024, that figure had jumped to nearly 7%. “It’s not something we expect to see just by chance,” Delise said, explaining that it could mean Southern Nevada is starting to see some of the new drugs that cities across the East Coast have already begun reporting — and having issues with. The SNHD discussed the potential danger of novel substances, a decade of overdose prevention efforts in Southern Nevada, and the importance of community collaborations Thursday at the seventh Southern Nevada Substance Misuse and Overdose Prevention Summit. “Communities make the greatest progress when prevention, rescue, treatment and recovery work together,” Dr. Cassius Lockett, district health officer for the SNHD, said in a statement. “This summit brings together experts and community partners to share practical strategies, emerging research and real-world solutions that help save lives and strengthen recovery efforts throughout Southern Nevada.” The sold-out conference at Tuscany Suites brought together public health leaders, behavioral health experts, community advocates and other key players in the substance use field for a day of programming focused on strategies to reduce substance use and build resilience among communities as they continue to fight drug overdoses. The SNHD has been working with partner agencies to survey the types of drugs found in local drug supplies through its drug surveillance program, which takes samples from syringes, pipes and other items voluntarily handed over by residents. Two substances in particular have grown in presence recently: xylazine and carfentanil. Xylazine, also known as “tranq,” is a common veterinary tranquilizer mainly found mixed into fentanyl. It can slow breathing, heart rate and blood pressure to dangerously low levels, and overdose medications like Narcan cannot reverse its effects — only the effects on fentanyl when the two are mixed. Unlike xylazine, carfentanil is a synthetic opioid originally made for veterinary use to sedate large animals like elephants. Carfentanil — also referred to as “rhino tranq” — is estimated to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in May 2025 said it had seen an increased presence of carfentanil in the illicit drug market, with it being found in at least 37 states. Data presented by Delise showed SNHD recorded 20 deaths involving xylazine in 2024, up from the sole death recorded from 2020 through 2022. The SNHD had “almost no cases” of carfentanil-related deaths before 2022, but saw 12 deaths in 2024 alone. Delise also mentioned that new drugs like kratom — an herbal substance that can produce effects similar to opioids and stimulants — are also on the health district's radar for their prevalence in local overdose deaths. More than 80 deaths involving kratom have been reported over the six years the SNHD has been tracking it, but “the numbers have stayed fairly steady year by year.” The concern surrounding new drugs is also layered on top of the ongoing fentanyl crisis across the United States, Delise stressed. Of the 138 novel substance deaths recorded, 65% — or 89 cases — included fentanyl. Even more striking, 26 of the 27 xylazine-related deaths reported also had traces of fentanyl. “This isn’t happening as a separate standalone problem,” Delise said Thursday. “It’s layered on top of the fentanyl crisis, which we’re already responding to.” The Southern Nevada Opioid Advisory Council (SNOAC) has spent a decade trying to mitigate this substance use issue. On Thursday, a special opening panel focused on the evolution of the coalition — which is now in its 10th year — and how it has built the region’s response to the substance use crisis. The advisory council was created in 2016 amid a “substance use crisis” in the region, when health officials were seeing upticks in drug usage and overdose deaths but lacked the adequate resources to treat and prevent the problem. The council addresses the substance use crisis using four principles: prevention, rescue, treatment and recovery. Local leaders were brought together from various organizations and agencies to develop evidence-based solutions and possible policy recommendations to help address substance use. That first council included members like Braden Schrag, a former Metro Police lieutenant and chair of the Nevada Commission on Behavioral Health. That work resulted in initiatives that continue to affect the region’s response to substance use, including the Law Enforcement Intervention for Mental Health and Addiction (LIMA) Diversion Program — formerly known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. The diversion program allows Metro officers to redirect low-level drug offenders to community-based services through the Eighth Judicial District Court. More than 200 people have graduated from the program in the past six years. Schrag said the advisory council “was really the first time in Southern Nevada and, I would say, throughout the state of Nevada, when we look at law enforcement, where you had this multidisciplinary, multiactor approach.” Schrag added that there wasn’t always consensus among the council or agency partners, but “challenging the status quo” by collaborating to develop these support programs has resulted in “some great, amazing things throughout the state.” Substance use issues “are more than complex,” with many elements that make it hard for people or organizations to do prevention work alone, said Jessica Johnson, health education supervisor at SNHD. She sees the advisory council “continuing to evolve and adapt in the work that we do” over the next decade, and hopes it will result in more collaborations and more progress. “Our data are showing overdoses in Clark County are decreasing, which is incredible. This is a testament to your efforts and to these many hands working together, and I think our next challenge is to keep that momentum, Johnson said. “The challenges will persist and they will evolve. I think that continuing to stand on the shoulders of the folks who’ve come before us and building in the next 10 years of (advisory council) by staying grounded, staying humble, and staying in it together will help us to have another decade of success.”