North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein proposes $2.5 million to help police tackle fentanyl

Julia Coin, The Charlotte Observer on May 8, 2025

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein wants more than $2 million of the state budget to fund new law enforcement jobs dedicated to smothering the fentanyl crisis, he said in Charlotte on Thursday.

As the opioid epidemic has continued to drain resources, overwhelm court systems and wreak havoc on communities and families, the number of SBI drug agents hasn’t changed in 25 years, Stein said at a news conference in Charlotte’s Government Center.

“Think about where North Carolina was in 2000,” he said.

Millions fewer lived in the state. Opioids had not yet caused a public health crisis. Fentanyl — a potent and deadly opioid laced into seven out of 10 pills seized by officers — wasn’t out on the street.

The former attorney general and first-term governor wants $2.5 million of the 2025-2027 budget for a fentanyl control unit. Investigators and prosecutors would have a clear mission: “Smash drug trafficking rings peddling this poison.”

The state Senate did not allocate the funds Stein wants in its two-year, $66 billion budget last month. He hopes the state House of Representatives will as lawmakers continue budget negotiations.

“To address this crisis, we have to address supply and demand,” he said. “We have to reduce the number of people who are chemically dependent on opioids. We have to reduce the number of people struggling with addiction ... On the supply side, we have to break up the drug trafficking rings that are bringing this poison into our state and making millions and millions of dollars off of people suffering.

“Our law enforcement officers work day and night to get fentanyl off our streets, but they need more help.”

Fentanyl in Charlotte

Fentanyl-laced drugs have exacerbated the ongoing, wide-reaching opioid crisis in every North Carolina community — some more than others. Mecklenburg County earlier this year reported a 14% increase in white overdose deaths since 2019. Black and Hispanic communities, which respectively make up 30% and 15% of the area’s total population, saw a 200% increase.

The Charlotte Observer reported on accounts from parents and students of how $7 laced pills disguised as Percocets infiltrated Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as drugs inside schools reached a 10-year high.

So far this year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police have responded to 600 overdose calls. That’s an 11% increase from this time last year, CMPD said Thursday.

“With fentanyl, you don’t see it coming, but it’s coming. It’s relentless ... and nobody is safe from it,” said Debbie Dalton, who joined Stein at the news conference.

Dalton’s son, Hunter, died in 2016 at age 23 after his best friend unknowingly gave him a line of fentanyl-laced cocaine.

Dalton has since founded a nonprofit, Hunter Dalton HDLife Foundation, to educate young people about potentially lethal recreation drugs. Stein, as attorney general, has long supported her calls for more legislation and resources to smother the drug’s killing power.