(bright energetic music) - [Lorraine] An alarming rise in overdose deaths in Pima County.

- That's a 4000% increase just in fentanyl.

- [Lorraine] As interstate traffic ramps up, a firsthand look at what troopers encounter.

- The 1% that I'm actively always looking for are like the felons.

- [Lorraine] High demand and short supply, what impact lumber shortages have on Arizonans.

- That affects our advantage in terms of attracting people from, from other areas across the West.

- Hello and welcome to Arizona 360 I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks so much for joining us.

In 2020, COVID claimed hundreds of thousands of lives nationwide, so it's not surprising that deaths registered in Pima County went up.

But what has officials concerned were the record number of deadly drug overdoses.

The 2020 annual report from the Pima County Medical Examiner tracked a 26% increase in registered deaths overall.

That's compared to the average for the previous three years.

Nearly 450 people died from overdose-related causes, up more than 30% from the last year.

We discussed these findings with Pima County Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Greg Hess.

- Well, there's a, there's a couple different things that we looked at with this report.

One is total mortality or the total number of people that died in Pima County in calendar year 2020.

That did increase 26% in comparison to the average of the previous three years.

Likely, a large portion of that could be attributed to COVID-related deaths.

Certainly, everyone's aware that the pandemic began towards the beginning of 2020 and we had excess deaths because of it.

And then when you look at the actual deaths that we certified at the medical examiner's office, the big changes or increases that we had were with overdose deaths where we had a large increase in number of overdose deaths, particularly attributed to fentanyl.

- What are some of the trends that you observed when you were looking at those numbers and found that fentanyl was one of the factors that continues in this community?

- Well, it's really kinda striking because if we go back to 2014, which wasn't that long ago, we had five overdose deaths in 2014 where we felt that fentanyl was a contributor to the deaths in contrast to 208 in calendar year 2020.

That's a 4000% increase just in fentanyl.

And then number two is a significant increase also in methamphetamine.

Not quite as bad as fentanyl, but that was a significant factor as well.

- A 4000% increase, is that correct?

- That's correct.

- What sort of strain does that put on your office?

- Well, I mean, there was, there was 446 overdoses in 2020 and certainly that's more than one a day overdose deaths.

You know you have to send a toxicology testing to a lab and you'd also have to do a full post-mortem examination to look for other potential contributing causes of death prior to getting that toxicology testing back.

So it does increase the workload quite a bit to investigate those kinds of deaths.

- Are these individuals who are using opiates and they're laced with fentanyl?

I mean, they're not assuming that it's going to be as toxic as it becomes.

- It's probably a mixture of both.

So there may be those individuals that are seeking the next best high and they hear about a super drug like fentanyl and people wanna try it for curiosity's sake.

And then of course there's others where they may be purchasing a substance that has fentanyl in it and they don't know it.

Clearly, there's no ingredient list when you purchase drugs or you think it's something else and that, I'm sure, happens too.

- Can you tell us a bit about the demographics that you're seeing?

And I assume that they're not necessarily new.

You've continued to see younger males between certain age groups that are affected.

- Yeah, so for overdoses, at least in 2020, is really 20 to 39.

So that, that demographic in terms of age was the lion's share of overdoses.

And that's about a 70% to 30% male-to-female ratio for overdoses in 2020.

- As you look toward the future, I know you can't predict what happens in the next year, but are you already seeing that the trends will continue in Pima County?

- Yeah, it really hasn't slowed down.

I mean, we haven't done in-depth, some kind of statistical analysis for the first three months of 2021 yet.

But at least subjectively, it does not appear to have slowed.

- This may be out of your realm but as you look at this issue continuing in this county, what do you hope, what sorts of conversations need to take place to get in front of this problem?

- Well, we work with public health and people that are interested in substance use disorders and try to get the information out and available to them.

And then really, they're the ones that come up with what to do, what that information and what type of messaging to get to what groups with the intent to try to prevent future overdoses.

- All right, Dr. Gregory Hess, the chief medical examiner in Pima County.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- The Counter Narcotics Alliance investigates the most dangerous crimes associated with drug activity.

From January to May, for Tucson police alone, the unit investigated more than 80 deaths associated with drug overdoses.

I sat down with TPD Sergeant Dallas Hearn who says Pima County's proximity to Mexico is a leading factor.

- People are selling 'em off of social media mainly.

So if you get hooked into social media or know somebody that has a hook into social media that's selling 'em that's mainly where they're getting it from.

- How is it possible that people can buy these lethal pills on the internet or something what they saw on social media?

- I mean, a lot of the stuff is private and they think that they're selling to people that they know or the people that they're, the people they sell to, they're friends.

So what we try to do is try to get our officers involved in that and go buy pills from these people that are selling 'em.

We've had high school students selling 'em.

We've had adults, all age ranges are selling these things.

- So these are people who are looking to actually buy fentanyl but it just, it's laced?

- A few years back, there was M30 pills, which were oxys basically.

And people were looking to buy oxys.

Now, people are looking to buy, they call 'em blues, or perks, M30s, and everybody knows what they're buying now.

It's not a surprise that they're buying a pill with fentanyl in it.

I believe it's just the cheap high because it's so inexpensive to get a pill.

You can get a pill for $5 and that could be your $5 death sentence.

- How lethal, for example, is one of these blue pills that people will buy and think that it's just for a temporary high?

- Well, that's the issue.

The manufacturing of these pills, they put all the ingredients into a big pot and stir it up like in a lab.

When they do that, when they mix pharmaceuticals, everything's measured, everything is stirred up for a certain amount of time so they know that it's, every pill has the same dosage.

With these M30 pills, you can get one pill that's mostly fentanyl and another pill that's hardly any fentanyl.

So that's the thing, you can take, you can use a hundred pills, a user can use a hundred pills and be okay.

But as soon as they get that one pill that has too much fentanyl in it, they die like almost immediately.

We've had deaths last year ranging from 13 years old all the way up into their 70s.

So it's a range of people.

- Where are you in stopping all this?

- I don't see an end to it.

I really don't.

We seem to stop one person and then the next person pops up and is selling 'em.

So what my unit does is we investigate any death that appears to be overdose-related and we look for different leads that we can follow up on to try to track that back to whoever sold the last dose to the person that died.

And if we can do that, then we have a successful case that we can prosecute.

Those people get prosecuted for manslaughter.

Others get prosecuted in the federal system.

There's a certain law in there that is 20-year mandatory, so we try to go towards the federal system because it's heavier sentencing.

- And where are you in making those arrests?

And saying, "Hey, we got the guy who led to this death."

- Last year, 219 overdose cases and we probably prosecuted or brought cases to the prosecution probably 20 of those for manslaughter-type charges.

Other charges, if we didn't have enough evidence for that, we take a little spinoff and we try to go after them for future sales.

We try to get undercover agents involved and get them for at least a sales charge.

- The 20 out of 200 plus doesn't necessarily sound good - Right.

but for you, you measure- - For us, it's a success.

- You measure success differently.

- It's a success, yeah.

'Cause that holds somebody responsible for the death and it also takes that seller off the street for a long period of time.

(gentle ambient music) - Traffic along Arizona's roadways continues to increase to pre pandemic levels.

On any given day, troopers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety see it all, everything from traffic violations to narcotics and impaired driving.

(traffic roaring) (car beeps) (door slams) - [Lorraine] Our crew recently rode with trooper, David Chavez.

He patrols district eight, which covers much of Pima County.

Across the state, there are 27,000 highway miles.

- The majority of stuff that we do as highway patrol is collisions and traffic.

So we stop people for hazardous violations and prevent violations and correct their driving behavior.

- [Lorraine] Chavez has been on patrol for six years.

He's one of more than 1,100 troopers.

- If you've ever watched ants walking in a line, and then you see one ant doing something weird, that's kind of what catches my attention.

Majority of people are gonna be driving regular, little speeding, maybe not so speeding.

- [Radio Operator] Unit, a report of a wrong way, a white pickup, elderly male driver.

- [Lorraine] Our day covered areas along Interstate 10, both east and westbound.

His focus is on criminal activity.

- The vast majority of people are regular people and then probably like 4% of people are some sort of habitual offender, driving super suspended, revoked, canceled, maybe have like minor warrants, misdemeanor warrants.

And then the 1% that I'm actively always looking for are like the felons, the ones that have felony warrants, the ones that just murdered somebody, the ones that just kidnapped somebody, domestic violence person on the run because they beat up their loved one, the people with child pornography, child molesters that are on the run.

I'm actively looking for all of the super, super bad guys all the time.

But the vast majority I'd come across are regular people.

- [Lorraine] Within minutes, Chavez makes his first stop.

- So he's yielding.

(radio chattering) So he might've just tried, been trying to make his exit quickly.

- [Lorraine] The next stop is westbound through a construction zone.

(car beeps) - So this gentlemen is traveling approximately 62 miles per hour in the number one lane in the construction zone where it's supposed to be at 55.

- [Driver] 55, I had my (indistinct).

- [David] I was going 55 and you passed by me.

- [Driver] That was when it said the construction ended.

- [David] When you get past the sign, that's when it changes, not before.

- [Lorraine] The stop becomes more complicated.

- [David] How much weed do you have in the car?

- [Driver] A little bit smoking.

- [David] The ones I seen you smoked?

- [Passenger] That's mine.

- [Driver] I understand the DUI laws.

- [Lorraine] The driver has a medical marijuana card.

Trooper Chavez says fresh and smoked marijuana don't smell the same.

In this case, the story and behavior, which Chavez is trained to identify, is legitimate and the driver can continue on the roadway.

- Do you have any other questions for me?

- No, not at all.

I appreciate you.

God bless you, you be safe out here, all right?

- Thanks.

You too.

- [Lorraine] Arizona has a medical marijuana program.

It began in 2011.

10 years later, recreational use became legal.

Chavez says in about a third of his stops, the vehicle contains marijuana.

- And their driving behavior varied but they were all impaired by weed.

With the new marijuana laws, they still can't drive impaired.

They can't smoke and drive, they can't drink and drive.

They need to drive safely.

They need to think about themselves in the way where they want to take care of themselves and take care of other people.

Not just think of their priorities because their driving behavior affects other drivers.

(traffic roaring) - [Lorraine] In 2019, DPS made 17,000 arrests.

Nearly 5,500 were DUIs and some 3,700 were drug-related.

Though traffic dipped slightly, likely due to the pandemic, Chavez notices activity is returning to normal.

- There is significantly more traffic on the road.

During that hard part of quarantine, I could be sitting over here like off of I-10 and I would be able to individually count the cars that were coming by me every five minutes.

- [Lorraine] Aside from citations or giving warnings, his baseline is public safety, which we watched firsthand.

- Yup, with debris westbound, two, three, four, road debris number one and two lane.

All right, so we're gonna have to wait for a natural break.

- [Radio Operator] Confirming two, four, three, one.

(door thuds) (traffic roaring) (David groans) - [David] Yeah, real-life Frogger is not fun.

(traffic roaring) - [Lorraine] Back to dealing with drivers, the stops vary from friendly, - [David] So you gotta take that one down.

So I'm just gonna get you a warning on it, but yeah, make sure you don't have anything in front of you that's gonna impede your ability to clearly see out your windshield.

So they don't want, and that thing's huge.

Yeah, that's like the biggest air-freshener I've seen all day.

- [Driver] It's a Mexican kind, I'm not gonna lie.

- Is it?

- Yeah.

- [David] Does it smell good?

What's it smell like?

- [Driver] It's empanada.

- [David] It's empanada?

- Yeah.

- Nice.

- [Lorraine] to somewhat aggressive.

- [David] You can't just hang out in the number one lane, you gotta either drive faster or you gotta move over to the right.

But yeah, pulled you over 'cause you're impeding all that traffic.

So you're just getting warning, but you're worried about getting a ticket?

- [Driver] Yeah, I know.

I know how you guys function.

- [David] Zero, two, seven, eight, one, zebra, one.

- [Lorraine] Later in the day, the wind plays a factor.

- [David] Are you having trouble with the wind or what's going on?

'Cause you haven't maintained your lane a couple, like four times now.

- [Driver] No, I mean it's just the wind, man.

- [Lorraine] Every stop Chavez made revealed some sort of violation, - [David] Yeah, you have a limited extradition warrant.

- [Lorraine] though DPS has seen a consistent flow of border-related crimes.

- If they are smuggling, there's probably more than one vehicle.

They probably have distractions that might be coming up on it too to protect the load or whatever.

So grossly outnumbered out here.

- [Lorraine] On this day, there's a small amount of drugs on a suspected impaired driver.

- Yeah, with the copy rolling two, eight out on Nevada, eastbound 10, two, three, six.

When he got near us, he pulled up alongside and then he went at a higher rate of speed and got ahead.

As soon as the window went down, I could start smelling odor of alcohol coming out of the vehicle.

And then he lowered all the windows, so kind of blew the odor away.

But I looked down and there was a beer can in front of me on the passenger seat.

And I could hear in his voice that he had this slurred speech.

And then later on, when I asked him to remove his eyeglasses, his eyes are bloodshot and watery, which are other indicators of possible impairment.

So I have slurred speech, odor of alcohol, and bloodshot, watery eyes.

So three different reasons to ask him to maybe consent to tests and he consented to the field sobriety test.

(traffic roaring) - One, two, three.

- [Lorraine] Between I-10 and an off-ramp, Chavez conducts a field sobriety test, which he says the driver failed.

- [David] It's just a breath test.

So just take a deep breath, blow into the tube until I tell you to stop, all right?

- [Driver] I've always been told, sir, to be honest, to refuse when it comes to the breathalyzer.

- You don't wanna do the breathalyzer?

- [Driver] Yeah, I've been told, you know what, yeah.

- It's up to you, yes or no?

- [Driver] What would happen if (indistinct).

- [David] Well, you told me you hadn't drunken it all, right?

- [Driver] Did I do well on test?

- I can smell it on you so hard right now, dude.

- Really?

- And your eyes are, I gotta arrest you, all right?

- Are you serious?

- I gotta arrest you.

See indicators of impairment on multiple tests.

(traffic roaring) - [Driver] Ugh, really, which one?

- [Lorraine] While searching the vehicle, Chavez finds marijuana.

The driver is charged and taken back to the station where a judge issues a warrant for blood test.

In this room, Chavez also serves as a phlebotomist.

Suspicion of DUI can take a trooper off the roadway for more than 60 minutes at a time.

State police average more than 420,000 stops a year, at least one stop during every hour of his shift.

Chavez asks drivers for patience.

- They should remember the Move Over Law for Arizona.

If they break down and they have their hazard lights on, vehicles are supposed to move over or slow down if they're unable to move over.

And then same thing with emergency lights, if the emergency lights are on, they're supposed to move over, give a lane in between, move over, or slow down if they're unable to.

- [Lorraine] For this trooper, a day without a collision or a fatality is a good one.

(radio chattering) (tool rattling) (gentle ambient music) - As more of the economy reopens, the cost of doing business has gone up in some sectors, including construction.

That's due in part to a rise in lumber prices.

An April report from the National Association of Home Builders estimated that increasing lumber prices over the last 12 months added nearly $36,000 to the average cost of a new single family home.

High demand for new housing, coupled with a drop in lumber production, are just a few factors.

Easing the burden on builders and home buyers has put renewed focus on tariffs levied on lumber imported from Canada.

We discussed the international interest this issue has garnered with Zaib Shaikh, consul general of Canada in Los Angeles.

Let's begin with educating our viewers about lumber.

Not all of it comes from the United States.

There's a significant portion that comes from Canada.

- You're right.

In fact, only 70% of what the US produces in terms of softwood lumber comes from the US itself.

The rest is mostly supplied by way of Canada, of course.

And this happens not just on softwood lumber as it relates to construction and housing, but of course, when we think of that early on in the pandemic, there was a toilet paper shortage.

And then when you think of the masks, that PPE that's so valuably needed, a lot of that pulp and paper product comes from, in fact, Canada for the US.

- So the figure, if I understand this correctly, was 20%.

Now, it's 9%.

That ultimately affects the average pocketbook though when you're talking about building, but then supply comes into play.

Is supply, I mean, is there enough lumber in Canada to make this sustainable?

- Well, here's the thing.

The issues are about the duties rather than even the supply of the actual lumber.

It's the duties on that lumber that are being put forth because of the US tariffs.

And that's what really Canada is working with the World Trade Organization, of course, having won a lot of rulings.

Of course, the US is appealing those or has appealed those, but even as recently as August last year, Canada won yet another ruling, which said that these tariffs are unnecessary and unfair.

And, unfortunately, not only are they unfair, but they hit that pocketbook of the American consumer.

So that's really what's at stake here.

- What are conversations like right now as we look into the future?

- The conversations are very hopeful.

I'll be honest, of course, because the administration here in the US and back home in Canada have agreed on a roadmap to building back better together.

And together requires real understanding of how these tariffs can affect that integrated supply chain and the jobs market itself within that supply chain.

And so right now, those conversations are at a much more positive place than they were, I'll be honest.

But there's still room to go, of course, because those tariffs are still there and that supply is still being held up.

- You are a consul general of Canada, you're in Los Angeles.

I mean, this has got to present some unique circumstances for you and your role in creating these binational agreements.

- Well, it doesn't.

Of course, it affects, you know we represent Arizona and Nevada as well.

And of course, we're speaking here to the Arizona public and so what we're seeing from the California migration, if you will, through this time, and in fact, demand is rising up in Canada and Canada and Arizona have, I mean demand is rising up in Arizona and Canada and Arizona have such a unique relationship in the first place in terms of that great unique relationship of partnership and alliance-ship and actual real estate relationship as well.

And so this is quite concerning, I'd say, on a lot of levels not only for the Canadians in Arizona but, of course, for the Arizonans who are looking to Canadians and looking to Canada for the support they need in order to build up that supply because folks are moving from California into Arizona and they're gonna need houses because that promise of affordability is paramount and it's not being met right now, so it's creating, of course, a lot of challenges.

But as I said, because of this hopeful tone, this optimistic tone between the two administrations, we're hoping we can get back on track really quickly.

And, of course, folks like myself are here to help that along.

- Okay, Consul Zaib Shaikh, the consul general of Canada in Los Angeles, thank you.

- Thanks so much, Lorraine.

- Lumber isn't the only resource in high demand.

Pandemic-related disruptions hit a number of industries.

We turn to University of Arizona economist, George Hammond, for more insight.

- It's clear that the housing market is extremely hot right now.

House prices are rising at extremely rapid rates, double digit rates.

And I think that's being driven by a couple of factors.

First, I think we're seeing increased net migration into Arizona and that is driving up demand for housing.

Yeah, I think we are seeing some of the remote workers relocating from the high cost western metropolitan areas into the lower cost Arizona markets.

So there's a demand side push that matters.

And I think we're also seeing supply side factors driven by lumber prices and partially by labor shortages.

The good news here at least in terms of these really rapid house price increases is I think that will be fairly temporary.

I think as we go through the remainder of this year, things will cool off a bit.

- You talk about supply and demand and it may or may not be affordable depending on who you're asking, but the supply, I mean, for homes, for example, it takes longer to build a house right now but also you're going to pay more if you're looking to buy or do some sort of home renovation project right now, correct?

- Yes, the building costs are rising rapidly and that is affecting the house prices.

And it's also affecting Arizona's affordability advantage.

As house prices outpace our income growth, and they certainly are doing that now, that affects household housing affordability.

And that affects our advantage in terms of attracting people from other areas across the West.

- You indicated there could be a slow-down coming.

- The pandemic is, I think, now beginning to wind down.

We're starting to see economic growth gain momentum.

I think that will continue as we go through the year.

I think in terms of employment, the state will be back to our pre-pandemic high as we get towards the end of this year or early next year.

So the closer we get back to normal, the more these temporary surges will dissipate and we'll get back to more normal rates of growth in house prices, jobs, and income.

- Are there other sectors of note that are facing supply-and-demand challenges?

- Yeah, one area where we're hearing a lot of talk from employers is in the travel and tourism sector.

A lot of firms there are complaining of having trouble hiring to fill positions as they're reopening.

Again, there's likely a variety of factors that are driving the difficulty that employers are having hiring.

Childcare options are still reduced.

Schools are closed and that's affected the labor force participation of women nationally and here in Arizona.

There's likely also still a significant amount of fear of workers in terms of going back to these close-contact sorts of occupations like waiters, waitresses, that sort of work.

And there are some more permanent factors that it's likely that people who are close to retirement before the pandemic and probably retired as a result of the pandemic.

People who used to work in these industries and occupations may have transitioned into other industries and other occupations because of the pandemic shock.

And it's also likely there's a temporary factor, which is the increased generosity of unemployment insurance benefits funded largely by the federal government.

But that's a temporary thing that those programs are set to expire in early September.

And those programs are already getting more restrictive in terms of their generosity.

So there are a variety of factors that are at play here.

Most of them are temporary, so as we go through the summer and through the remainder of the year, I think employers will have more success in finding the the workers that they need.

- Are there jobs to be had in Arizona?

- Absolutely.

We still have a long way to go to replace all the jobs that we had before the pandemic began but there are large numbers of employers looking to rehire and to get back to work - Dr. George Hammond from the U of A College of Eller Management, thank you.

- Thank you.

- That's all for now.

Thanks for joining us.

To get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to arizona360@azpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

(lively music) (triumphant music)