Senator Baldwin meets with local leaders in response to Fentanyl crisis

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) - Senator Tammy Baldwin met with local leaders at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center to discuss the ongoing Fentanyl crisis.

Police, Sheriff, and Fire department officials from the area, along with La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds all sat down with Senator Baldwin to discuss the drug abuse problem.

Nearly 1,400 deaths were reported as a result of opioids in Wisconsin in 2022 according to the senator. She also noted that since 2019, fentanyl overdoses have been the leading cause of death for people ages 18-45 in the country. 

"Families that are devastated, empty seats at the dining room table, it's really an epidemic that doesn't see any partisan bounds or geographic lines, and it will take all of us working together to combat it," she said.

La Crosse Fire Department Chief Jeff Schott is determined to lower opioid deaths. "If this were 55 civilian fire deaths caused by structure fires, this would be national news every night until someone did something to intervene. We have 55 deaths in this county, majority of them being in the city of La Crosse or thereabouts in that region and we have been stymied in ways to reduce that amount. It just keeps increasing. So if we don't intervene and I mean this personally as well, everybody is impacted by this."

The Senator also stated that the recently passed bi-partisan legislation aims to safely help community forces on the front lines. 

There was also a discussion to increase support in the areas of drug treatment and drug use prevention.