Fentanyl Empire: The Inland Empire's Latest Drug Crisis

Fentanyl, a drug that has been running rampant within the United States, is becoming a serious issue within the Inland Empire. The region that once was called “The Meth Capital of the World” now fears that fentanyl will cause another drug epidemic. Riverside City College Viewpoints journalists, in partnership with California Humanities through the Democracy and Informed Citizen Emerging Journalist Fellowship Program, looked to answer three questions: 1) How is the drug entering the region? 2) What does fentanyl do to a person who consumes it? 3) What solutions does the Inland Empire have?

The fight for California’s great lake

Endless Tilapia bones and barnacle shells that vaguely resemble teeth blanket the shores of California’s greatest lake as a blanket of haze hovers above in the desert sky. Even miles away from its beaches, the sulfuric odor that periodically emanates from the lake — a stench resembling the smell of rotten eggs — is inescapable. The State Water Resources Control Board urged visitors to stay out of the murky, gray waters back in April when a dog died after taking a swim. The toxic algal bloom that killed the dog is just one of many problems the lake and its surrounding communities are facing.