Behind the Badge | Revisiting a growing, deadly drug problem: fentanyl

BEHIND THE BADGE

Revisiting a Growing, Deadly Drug Problem: Fentanyl

BY IAN PARKINSON

If this column gives you a sense of déjà vu, you’re right. In July of last year, my column dealt with the tragic death of a 7-monthold girl who died from exposure to fentanyl. I had hoped the problem would get better. It hasn’t. In fact, it’s gotten worse. And that’s why I felt it was necessary to write another column, exactly one year later, about the issue.

For those of you who don’t know, fentanyl is a dangerous and deadly drug. It is a synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 80 to 100 times more potent. I gave an example of the deadly nature of fentanyl in last year’s column, but it’s still worthy of repeating. A lethal amount can be as little as 25 nanograms per milliliter. To give you an idea of how small that is, a nanogram is one billionth of a gram. That’s billion with a “B.”

Not long ago, we had a narcotics investigation that led to the seizure of a large quantity of fentanyl in our county. The investigation began in April when members of the Sheriff’s Gang Task Force were tracking a wanted felon, 31-year-old Julian Ackerman of Coalinga, who was suspected of driving into San Luis Obispo County with a large amount of narcotics. Later that month, Sheriff’s Deputies spotted the car with two occupants, Ackerman and a female driver. Deputies attempted to pull the vehicle over on northbound Highway 101 just north of Highway 166. The car came to a complete stop on the shoulder of the highway just south of the Tefft Street off ramp in Nipomo. As a deputy questioned the occupants of the car, the car suddenly took off and exited the highway at Tefft Street. Deputies located and stopped the vehicle at East Tefft Street and Beechnut Street in Nipomo. The female driver, identified as 20-year-old Zoe Rutledge of Nipomo, was detained. Ackerman fled the vehicle.

Deputies and members of the Sheriff’s Special Operations Unit began searching for Ackerman. He was spotted in the front yard of a house before running into a nearby field near East Branch Street in Nipomo, where he was caught and arrested. Detectives discovered a backpack in the field where Ackerman had been arrested. That same backpack had been spotted in the vehicle that Ackerman had fled. Inside, a kilo (approximately 2.2 pounds) of fentanyl was found. It’s estimated worth: $25,000. Or, if sold by the gram at $125 a gram, that would be worth $125,000. Ackerman was arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sale, transporting a controlled substance for sale, and resisting a peace officer. Rutledge was arrested for attempting to evade a peace officer in a reckless manner.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, a lethal dose of fentanyl is two

Here are some stats to give you an idea of what this drug is doing to our county:

2018 — 44 total drug-related deaths.

Fentanyl was present in 3 cases 2019 — 53 total drug-related deaths.

Fentanyl was present in 12 cases 2020 — 88 total drug-related deaths.

Fentanyl was present in 34 cases 2021 — 123 total drug-related deaths.

Fentanyl was present in 74 cases milligrams. So, one kilo of pure fentanyl contains approximately 500,000 lethal doses.

It is almost incomprehensible how something so small could be so destructive. That’s why we’ve been making a big push to get this drug off the streets. Drug busts like the one described above help, but we know there’s more out there. So, we’ll keep fighting the good fight. And maybe, hopefully, next year, I won’t need to write another column on this topic. 

BACKROAD COWGIRLS

Court and Kiah Take California

BY CAMILLE DEVAUL

What do you get when you take two cowgirls and put them in a hippie van?

Throw in a photographer, a video camera, and you, my friends, have “Backroad Cowgirls,” a digital series created and hosted by the Central Coast’s very own Kiah Twisselman Burchett.

“Backroad Cowgirls” premiered with its first season in June on YouTube. The digital series features Kiah and her Texan friend, Courtenay DeHoff — known to many as the creator of the Fancy Lady Cowgirl brand. The two friends, along with photographer Shelby Caitlin, traveled up and down California, sharing stories of the people behind one of the most vital industries in the world — agriculture.

“We don’t want this to be a show just teaching people about how their food is made,” Kiah explained, “What we wanted it to be was talking about the people. Because at the end of the day, people connect with people.”

Kiah is a sixth-generation California cattle rancher from Carissa Plains. She has made national headlines after sharing her health journey to lose over 100 pounds in one year. She now doubles as a life coach, speaker, and podcast host.

Prior to Kiah and Courtenay hitting the road, Shelby offered her photography skills to document the journey. Shelby is a destination photographer known for capturing the western lifestyle based out of Paso Robles. tenay went to different farms and ranches in California. They ended up producing 13 episodes, with new episodes available every Tuesday running through the end of August.

It Started with Pasta

The idea for the project came up in February when Courtenay, who lives in Texas, picked up Kiah from the Dallas Airport, saving Kiah from enduring a seven-hour layover. While chatting over an Italian lunch, the two discussed their dream to create their own television series, but they decided they were tired of waiting for a producer to notice them.

The friends each grew up in the agriculture industry — Kiah growing up on the Twisselman Ranch in Carissa Plains and Courtenay, a fourth-generation cattle rancher from Kansas. While their careers took them out of the everyday agriculture business, they each wanted to marry their passions of agriculture and travel. And what better way to do that than to create their own television show? Less than three months later, Kiah and Courtenay were in their “hippie cowgirl van” and on the road.

“If we don’t do it now, life is going to get busy, things are going to get in the way, the excitement is going to fizzle, and it might not ever happen — we decided we are going to do this come hell or high water,” Kiah shared.

After creating a website, Kiah and Courtenay raised funds for their new venture and gained some sponsors.

On the Road

Kiah and Courtenay’s first stop was the Allgood family in Creston. They then met with agriculture members in Edna Valley, Oceano, Coalinga, Lodi, and Sonoma, just to name a few.

Each stop on their journey was meant to highlight diverse members of agriculture. Episodes feature traditional-looking cowboys, tatted-up chefs, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farmers, mental health professionals, and more — celebrating the diversity of the industry.

They’re an Everywhere (Wo) Man

Season one features the agriculture community in California, but that is just the start of the Backroad Cowgirl dream. Kiah and Courtenay have plans to take the road all over North America and eventually overseas. According to Kiah, they are already in the works with some big investors for season two of the series.

Ultimately, the two friends hope to take the series to a streaming platform like Hulu or Netflix. Their hope with these platforms is to reach an audience outside of agriculture and to bridge the gap between the farming industry and the rest of the world.

“There is so much hate in the world today,” Kiah stated. “I think it is so easy to hate somebody or something you don’t know that you can’t put a face and a story to.”

“Agriculture doesn’t just have one look,” explained Kiah, “but it’s so much bigger than what we traditionally think of when we think of agriculture and farming and ranching.”

Look for new episodes of Backroad Cowgirls every Tuesday, available on YouTube. For more information, visit backroadcowgirls.com 

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