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By Riya Upadhyaya
“It amazes me still that people aren’t aware how prevalent this is…my son Corey, he tells me he sees younger and younger-aged kids coming into San Francisco on BART, buying drugs and heading back to the suburbs with them,” said Jacqui Berlinn, a Livermore resident and co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths.
Berlinn noted that region-wide transport, such as BART, is just one of many ways in which opioids and contaminated drugs can make their way from the cities to the suburbs.
From 2003 to 2023, the opioid overdose rate rose from 8.9 to 31.3 deaths per 100,000 people in the U.S. While the nation as a whole is experiencing reduced drug overdose deaths compared to the pandemic, the opioid crisis persists.. There were 44,564 opioid overdose cases in 2025. In the past ten years, upwards of 230,000 people between 10-34 years old have died from drug overdoses, although those numbers are now declining.
These statistics might appear abstract but, as reported in the Pleasanton Weekly, the opioid crisis has impacted the Tri-Valley area in concrete, impactful ways. Due to concerns over teen opioid abuse, some Tri-Valley school districts now require Narcan, an opioid overdose treatment, on high school campuses.
The dangerous misconception that the opioid crisis isn’t local has the potential to lead to inaction and ignorance, and the crisis’ effects in the Tri-Valley remain ever-present.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
