Recent statistics indicate overdosed-related dispatch calls, emergency room visits and deaths have decreased from 2023 and 2024 levels in Whatcom County, in line with statewide and national trends.
The scourge of fentanyl and other highly addictive opioids has led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Recent data indicates positive trends at both the national and state level: overdose deaths in Washington dropped 12% last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicates a 27% nationwide decline in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024.
While Whatcom and Skagit counties see similar trends, those on the frontlines of the problem say it is far from solved.
By the numbers
After recording 91 and 137 overdose deaths in 2022 and 2023, respectively, Whatcom County saw 83 total overdose deaths in 2024. Whatcom County still trended about 9% higher than the statewide death rate for drug overdoses in 2023, however, and more than 10% higher than the opioid-related overdose death rate for that year.
Overdoses also decreased 13% in Skagit County from 2023 to 2024.
Other data suggest positive trends. Across Whatcom County, emergency department overdose visits for the first four months of 2025 are down from the same period in 2024, according to data reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s Rapid Health Information Network.
ER visits for all drug overdoses were down 20.8%, with 259 visits recorded through April. There was a 34.9% decrease in opioid overdose visits, with 123 through April. In 2023 and 2024, ER visits exceeded 320 overdose visits for the same period. This year’s numbers are still marginally higher than 2022 numbers, however.
Similarly, suspected overdose dispatch calls from Whatcom County Emergency Medical Services have also improved from 2024 totals.
Calls for suspected drug overdoses fell 30.8% in the first five months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, from 646 calls to 447. The number of suspected opioid overdose calls decreased 37.1% between 2024 and 2025 over the same period, with opioid overdoses making up 5% less of overall calls. Still, more than half of all suspected overdose calls are for opioids.
By comparison to a time prior to fentanyl-involved overdose deaths in Washington surpassing non-fentanyl overdoses, however, Whatcom County saw only about 13 overdose deaths in 2017.
Better integration and availability
Shannon Boustead finished his tenure as opioid response medical advisor for Whatcom County Health and Community Services at the end of May.
The physician, who also runs the medication-assisted treatment program at Sea Mar Community Health Centers in Whatcom County, thinks things truly are getting better thanks to a number of recent response approaches.
“There’s improved integration of services throughout our community, in terms of first responders, the hospital, detox,” he said. “New programs in the community to provide services. (And) people are having a little bit easier access. Once they start on services, there’s a higher chance they’re going to stay on services, and that they’re going to be able to get where they need to go.”
Boustead was hired by the county health department last year as part of the response to an executive order issued by Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu. The department’s Fentanyl Operations Plan was enacted last May, resulting in efforts to better treat both emergency overdoses and underlying substance use disorders.
Boustead specifically pointed to better coordination between first responder and treatment communities, which are now better aligned than they were in the past.
Sea Mar, he said, is seeing increased numbers of referrals for treatment, from the hospital, jail and community providers, as well as through word of mouth. People are encouraging others to seek help, he said, and they’re more aware of what’s available to them.
Recent progress includes a grant from North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization, which allowed a substance use disorder professional to be embedded within the emergency department of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.
In addition, an October 2024 training session taught more than 50 local healthcare professionals — including many ER providers — about initiating buprenorphine and other life-saving medications for opioid overdoses in the ER.
That knowledge, Boustead said, should increase the likelihood that suspected overdose victims are started on buprenorphine even before being formally admitted to the hospital. County EMS personnel are also involved in a new state pilot program, allowing them to administer buprenorphine in the field. Paramedics in Seattle have been doing this for several years with positive outcomes, Boustead added.
Providing a patient with the buprenorphine immediately, Boustead said, results in not only a higher likelihood of survival from an overdose, but a higher likelihood they’ll achieve greater stability with further treatment. While not as many people take buprenorphine compared to other withdrawal-relieving medications, those who do can potentially have life-changing outcomes, Boustead said.
“Even if that person doesn’t take it, the provider does have the option of giving them that medication,” he said. “And that’s a really powerful, positive thing for people who provide care. It’s morally injurious to see someone in pain and not have the tools that you need to help.”
Greater local access to naloxone, or Narcan, has also helped. The county reportedly distributed more than 5,000 doses of naloxone through last September, including through outreach programs and at events. Several new 24/7 dispenser boxes with the medication were also installed across Whatcom County: at the Bellingham Food Bank, Northwest Youth Services ground floor drop-in center and the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center.
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s didgʷálič Wellness Center has also played a role through partnership with the county health department. Methadone and buprenorphine are being dispensed from mobile medical units, six days a week, at the Whatcom County Behavioral Health Campus near detox facilities at the Anne Deacon Center for Hope.
In addition, Boustead said the Lummi Nation has begun its own methadone program, and the Bellingham Comprehensive Treatment Center continues serving a patient population of more than 500 people.
Bellingham response
The City of Bellingham has also taken numerous steps to combat opioid addiction since Mayor Kim Lund issued an executive order addressing fentanyl in February 2024.
Melissa Morin, communications and community relations director for the City of Bellingham, said the Bellingham Fire Department’s community paramedic program relocated its home base to the city’s Downtown Safety Office, reducing its response time for overdoses. The fire department also distributes Narcan kits, which are provided by the county and carried on most BFD vehicles.
The city committed $10,000 to the 2025 All Hands Opioid Summit, an annual event run by the Chuckanut Health Foundation, and committed $1 million in opioid settlement funds toward a yet-to-be-realized 23-hour behavioral health crisis triage center.
Supplies, seizures and arrests
Despite evidence that overdoses and deaths may be falling, the number of fentanyl-related cases resulting in arrests by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office — which covers unincorporated Whatcom County — has remained similar in recent years.
‘It’s morally injurious to see someone in pain and
not have the tools that you need to help.’
In 2023, 111 cases were recorded, with 116 arrest-resultant fentanyl cases tallied last year, according to data provided to Salish Current from WCSO. So far this year, 49 such cases have been recorded — indicating the county may record a similar if not slightly reduced number of cases by 2025’s end.
In an emailed statement, Sheriff Donnell Tanksley said that arrests by the Whatcom Regional Drug Task Force seized 700,000 fentanyl pills and 51 firearms in 2024. The agency is a multijurisdictional entity that focuses on preventing drug-related crimes, overdoses and deaths while improving community safety.
“The numbers make it clear the task force is making headway,” Tanskley said, “(but) it’s clear there is more work to do. Combating fentanyl and opioids is every community’s challenge.”
The number of pills recovered in 2024 is an increase from 2022, when the county task force reported seizing more than 500,000 fentanyl-containing pills. That number was reportedly four times what was seized in 2021, and more than 25 times what was seized in 2020.
Amy Cloud, WCSO’s public information officer, said it’s also difficult to get a complete statistical perspective on things, since all law enforcement agencies — from local to federal — make drug-related arrests. This makes assembling all arrest statistics, and definitively distinguishing fentanyl-related cases from other drug-related crimes or arrests, a challenge.
Last summer, the Bellingham Police Department rejoined the task force and began focusing downtown patrol resources to deter illicit drug sales, Morin said.
The department recorded 79 drug-related misdemeanor and felony arrests in 2023, according to statistics Morin provided Salish Current. Those numbers more than doubled in 2024, to 194 arrests. Through May 29 of this year, city police have made 120 arrests.
Misdemeanor arrests include both possession and use of a controlled substance, while felonies include possession of a controlled substance with either delivery or intent to deliver. No drug-related arrests are made when responding to overdose calls, Morin noted; persons who are overdosing, and those helping them, are not prosecuted for drug possession in Washington.
Changes in the drug supply itself may also play a factor in usage choices and potential consequences. Decreases in potency, which appear to be occurring in much of the recent local fentanyl supply, can lead to changes in how users administer the drug, Boustead explained.
While many users smoke fentanyl, potency decreases may lead to them to instead inject it, he said. Subsequently, using needles to get high may lead to increases in blood-borne diseases like Hepatitis C and HIV. A decrease in potency or less likelihood of overdose, he added, also does not negate the severity of existing addiction and their resulting behaviors.
Part of the decrease in deaths could be caused by a more sobering explanation, Boustead said: many opioid users have already died.
Federal funding cuts
Boustead worries that the federal policies may reverse this apparent progress.
“A lot of the changes that have been for the positive, I really worry that they’re going to kind of go out the window,” he said. “I think they’ve made catastrophically bad decisions.”
In March 2025, $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding, much of which was designated for addiction and mental health programs, was abruptly cancelled.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which oversees research and funding for addiction services nationwide, was also merged into the Administration for a Healthy America, resulting in half its staff facing potential layoffs.
Federal budget proposals also feature significant cuts to Medicaid, and over 40% of people with substance use disorders are on the government program, Boustead said. While he expressed optimism that state and local leaders will maintain progress in the face of federal cuts, the consequences of such cuts are clear.
“It’s going to reduce service access for many people to substance use treatment and medication coverage,” Boustead said. “(It’s going to) leave a lot of people vulnerable to the vagaries of the drug supply. Even if people are hired back at some point, and even if some of the funding is returned, just that huge stop is going to really adversely affect a lot of things.”
The Trump administration has stated a focus on border security, tariffs and law enforcement to reduce fentanyl trafficking into the U.S., with mixed results.
Maintaining the current level of progress is especially important, Boustead warned, due to the complexity of the issues involved and the ever-changing nature of the illicit drug supply.
“If we don’t have services in place for people who need them, and the OD levels are decreased because of the drug supply, then if the drug supply changes, there’s no reason to assume that (we’re) not going to end up with all of same old problems that happened before,” Boustead said. “If, next week, there’s a bad batch that comes into town, there’s a lot of people that are going to die.”
— By Matt Benoit
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Seeking stability: services for the unhoused,” Feb. 5, 2025
• “A noticeable difference in downtown Bellingham,” April 5, 2024
• “Who will solve the problems of downtown Bellingham?” Sept. 15, 2023
• “No easy answers to Whatcom fentanyl health disaster,” March 8, 2023