U.S. Congressional Candidate Blake Masters (R-AZ-8), left, and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Phoenix) | Facebook / House.gov
U.S. Congressional Candidate Blake Masters (R-AZ-8), left, and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Phoenix) | Facebook / House.gov
U.S. Congressional candidate Blake Masters (R-AZ-8) said that a 2023 government report showing Maricopa County “heat-related” deaths is a result of the “open border” and “terrible economy.”
“Arizona’s always been hot; it will always be hot,” said Masters in a statement. “The spike in ‘heat-related’ deaths comes from Biden’s open border and Biden’s terrible economy.”
“Under Biden, more people and more fentanyl are on the streets,” said Masters. “President Trump and I will fix this.”
An analysis published by the PHX Reporter Tuesday showed nearly seven in ten "heat related" deaths reported by Maricopa County's Department of Public Health (DPH) in 2023 involved drugs and/or alcohol.
The analysis showed that, of 645 Maricopa County deaths blamed on excessive heat, 419 were drug and/or alcohol related, and 53% of those deaths were of confirmed drug users.
Maricopa County reported that 46 percent of the drug users who died from excessive heat were users of fentanyl, a highly-lethal drug that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
These local fentanyl deaths occurred as seizures of the drug at the U.S.-Mexico border increased by 480% from fiscal year 2020 to 2023, reported the National Immigration Forum.
More than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl were seized in 2023, reported NIDA.
“This year, fentanyl is coming in like crazy,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Nogales Port Director Michael Humphries told NPR in August 2023. “It's going throughout the U.S., everywhere we hear about addiction and overdose problems.”
The 53% of deaths involving drug and/or alcohol use in Maricopa County is a sharp increase from 2015, when only 37% of heat-related deaths involved these substances.
DPH’s “2023 Heat Related Deaths Report,” also showed an increase in the amount of homeless people dying from “heat related” issues.
Homeless people accounted for 45% of heat-related deaths in 2023, a sharp increase from 2015 when homeless accounted for only 10% of deaths.
Those deaths came at the same time the county saw a 49% increase in homelessness, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).
There were 9,333 homeless households in the county in March 2024, reported MAG, up from 6,282 homeless households in March 2023.
Maricopa County also reported that 46% of heat-related deaths were among those who already had existing cardiopulmonary disease.
Gov. Katie Hobbs (R-Ariz.) in March released an “Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan” and hired the nation’s first state “Chief Heat Officer.” Phoenix created a “heat officer” position in 2021.
The “chief heat officer” is a creation of the Adrienne Arsht Resilience Center at the left-leaning Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Economic Forum said the role is designed to “address rising temperatures driven by climate change.”
Following Hobbs’ declaration of a “heat emergency” in August 2023, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Phoenix) promoted his legislation to add “extreme heat” to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) list of major disaster qualifying events.
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Who actually died of “heat-related” causes in Maricopa County 2023?
Source: Maricopa County Department of Public Health
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