Doctors, officials to discuss opioid epidemic in South County during virtual town hall

SOLEDAD, Calif. (KION) Officials and doctors are hosting a virtual town hall meeting to discuss the opioid epidemic in South Monterey County.

During the discussion, they are expected to talk about the public health crisis, local solutions in Monterey County, local resources and how to use Narcan.

The discussion will be hosted by Dr. Casey Grover and Dr. Reb Close in partnership with Front Street, Soledad and Supervisor Chris Lopez.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Monday, and to join it, email frontstreetwebinars@gmail.com for Zoom information or visit Supervisor Chris Lopez's Facebook page to watch a livestream.

Earlier this month, Soledad police arrested a man on drug-related charges and said they are investigating whether the fentanyl he allegedly had is linked to overdoses in the area.

"Within the last year, our overdoses have skyrocketed. We've been seeing an increase of them. So that's why we started this investigation," said Detective Gustavo Gomez with the Soledad Police Department at the time of the arrest.

There were two overdose deaths in Soledad in September, and it is believed that the drugs they took were laced with fentanyl. As of late September, Soledad police said they had responded to more than 21 overdoses