sa国际传媒官网网页入口

Over the past year, the eastern end of Route 66 鈥� one of sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 most historically vibrant roadways 鈥� has become the scene of something else: open-air drug use.

At all hours, it was common to see people smoking drugs like fentanyl, a tube between their teeth, as they hovered above a blue pill smoldering on a square of foil. Sometimes users would line the curb, side by side, using blankets to shield the flame from wind or prying eyes.

On Wednesday, the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Police Department said making arrests for the use of fentanyl and other hard drugs along Central is now a top priority.

鈥淥ver the course of the last year, we鈥檝e heard that there鈥檚 a lot of people concerned over the open air use of drugs, and it鈥檚 us as a police department listening to the community (and) hearing their concerns,鈥� APD Chief Harold Medina said during a briefing Wednesday.

Medina said police began to tackle the issue with an operation last Thursday and Friday, during which 47 people were arrested for felony or misdemeanor possession, 32 of them related to fentanyl. Another 62 people were arrested for outstanding warrants.

He said there has been a lot of 鈥渞umors and misinformation鈥� being spread about APD not enforcing laws related to drug use.

Medina said, since 2018, APD had been treating open-air drug use as a misdemeanor offense due to concerns that the crime lab couldn鈥檛 efficiently get an influx of felony possession cases ready for prosecution in time. He said those issues with the crime lab鈥檚 testing capabilities have been fixed, and 鈥渨e鈥檙e making sure that we鈥檙e able to push these cases forward.鈥�

Medina said the 鈥渃ontinuous and ongoing鈥� enforcement would focus on Central between San Mateo and Wyoming and target both public drug use and those who traffic the substances.

Cmdr. George Vega said APD鈥檚 specialized drug and gang units seized 6,000 fentanyl pills, firearm parts and 50 grams of cocaine during a traffic stop and arrested four others for possession and at least one for trafficking methamphetamine.

All four arrests were made in two separate incidents.

In one case, an undercover APD detective walked up to a woman smoking a fentanyl pill and asked if he could buy some, according to court records. Officers arrested the woman after she sold him six pills and also arrested a man standing near her who had pills on him.

In the other case, according to court records, another undercover detective bought seven fentanyl pills from a man. Officers arrested the man and a 17-year-old girl he was enlisting to help sell the fentanyl.

Vega said APD also assisted federal authorities in targeting an international fentanyl trafficking ring but gave few details on the case. He said they also worked with federal agents to arrest a person who had 5,000 fentanyl pills on them and, through further investigation, recovered 25,000 pills in the case.

Medina said officers have been arresting 12 to 14 people a day for possession, but he wants to double that total.

鈥淚n a way, I hope that it puts a little strain on the system. I think the system needs to feel a little bit of strain on how we鈥檙e going to deal with these individuals and how we ultimately are going to get them the resources they need,鈥� he said. 鈥淏y no means am I saying these individuals should spend the rest of their life in prison, but I think the system needs to evolve.鈥�

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman released statistics on Tuesday showing that fentanyl-related cases increased from 53% of all drug cases in the first seven months of 2022 to 71% of all drug cases over the same time last year. Cases involving other drugs remained flat or decreased.

He said when prosecuting cases related to drug use, his office oftentimes decides diversion to treatment is better than jail time, adding 鈥渢hey wouldn鈥檛 be in the criminal justice system if it were not for their addiction, and so we want to get them the help they need.鈥�

Bregman said a bigger issue is the lack of resources in the community and statewide for substance abuse treatment, and there needs to be a 鈥渃entralized coordination effort.鈥� He said he wants to see a city where a social worker or officer who has found someone using drugs can look up available beds at local treatment centers and get the person into one.

鈥淎nd there isn鈥檛 any coordination. There isn鈥檛 even a list that you can go to on any website right now and find out who鈥檚 doing fentanyl treatment. ... It just does not exist,鈥� Bregman said. 鈥�... If they鈥檙e not getting treatment, they鈥檙e going to end up back on the same street corner doing open-air, fentanyl smoking and that doesn鈥檛 work.鈥�