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Sheriff: Fentanyl, meth drive sharp rise in Spokane County overdoses; naloxone use rises
Summary
Sheriff Knowles told a community mapping session that fentanyl and methamphetamine now account for the vast majority of drug-related deaths and seizures in Spokane County, that first-responder overdose calls and naloxone deployments have surged, and that law enforcement and public-health partners are pursuing better data and coordination.
Sheriff Knowles told a Spokane community mapping session that first responders dispatched to drug-related calls in the county “have quadrupled in the last 3 years from 2022 to 2024,” and that calls requesting naloxone increased about fivefold in the same period.
The sheriff said the Raven task force and other county analyses show fentanyl and methamphetamine are the dominant drivers of overdose deaths in 2024. “Fentanyl and methamphetamine either individually or collectively comprise 95 percent of the 332 Spokane County adjusted drug related deaths in 2024,” he said, citing Raven’s report and data from the Spokane County coroner’s office.
Why it matters: the sheriff framed the trend as a rising operational burden on police, fire and emergency medical services and a public-health crisis that cannot be addressed by one tool alone. He noted that naloxone saves lives — “the fact of…
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