District Attorney candidates address Humboldt's fentanyl crisis

EUREKA, Calif. — As Humboldt County prepares to elect a new district attorney, officials continue to grapple with the deadly fentanyl crisis.

North Coast News met with each of the three DA candidates to see what they would do about the ongoing issue. All three are in favor of harsh consequences for those who distribute the drug, especially repeat offenders.

"With respect to drug dealers, and the Fentanyl crisis, certainly the weaponized use of fentanyl should be treated as assault and or murder if there is death,"Michael Acosta said. "But the normal distribution of fentanyl can be prosecuted normally, with maximum sentences."

"We're not going to make any plea bargains or special deals to accommodate folks that are choosing to deal in fentanyl and certainly in the event that there's an instance and we have had to charge one of these where there's a death and there's a direct connection with a dealer that knowingly provided and supplied fentanyl on ultimately resulted in the death of the victim that we may be looking at homicide charges," Stacey Eads said.

"No matter how many people we put away, there's always going to be someone to fill in that spot and, again, continue to sell," Adrian Kamada said. "The product is always going to be there, no matter how much we are able to take out. They're just gonna keep making it right and so focusing on, again, trying to cut off people from the start."

Acosta and Kamada also emphasized the need to cut off fentanyl coming in through the U.S.-Mexico border. When it came to those using drugs, all three candidates had different approaches.

"There's a good argument that maybe we should look at simply providing addicts with legal prescriptions of fentanyl so that their dosage is regulated,"Acosta said. "Their usage is regulated, and you take it right out of the streets, you take it right out of dangerous elements of the streets and opportunities for people to be victimized."

"Rehabilitation is a great way to go so long as [fentanyl users] are on board and they're accepting of those services," Eads said. "There could be a dual diagnosis situation where substance use disorder is coupled with a mental health disorder."

Kamada said prevention is key to addressing the crisis.

"Prevention is the number one thing, [and the] number two thing is harm reduction so people aren't taking substances that they don't know about," Kamada said.