Barb Walsh, Executive Director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, fights to save lives and get justice for those killed by fentanyl poisoning. Joining Barb in the fight are Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina members Michelle Murdock and Betsy Ballard Moore.
There are two episodes being aired, Part 1 is airing January 11th, Part 2 will air one week later, January 18.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston of the Middle District of North Carolina, includes 27 people from the Tar Heel State.
All but one of the defendants are already in custody. 18 of them will have their first court appearances in North Carolina on Tuesday or Wednesday. If convicted, they face up to life in prison for narcotics conspiracy and up to 20 years for money laundering conspiracy.
The charges of narcotics distribution conspiracy include fentanyl, an ongoing problem statewide.
“There is someone who has died from fentanyl in all 100 counties,” Barb Walsh said. “We connect the families to one another so they can gain support and understanding.”
“Killed by fentanyl in a water bottle in 2021. Took us five months to find out that fentanyl killed her. Took seven months to find out that it was the water bottle,” Walsh said. “We learned that it was killing a lot of North Carolinians and that these families, like myself, felt very alone, and we felt nobody really wanted to hear how or why our loved one died. Once they heard the word fentanyl, they were not interested anymore.”
Amid Tuesday’s arrests, overdoses are going down in the state. The latest CDC data predicts deaths have dropped about 30% from 2023 to 2024. Walsh says this is likely due to education and more distribution of naloxone, which she encourages everyone to keep on them, especially since many victims do not know they’re ingesting fentanyl.
“They think it’s adderall. They think they need to do well on the test, so they’ll take a pill from that they order off Snapchat, and it contains fentanyl, and they’re dead,” Walsh said. “That is how easy someone could die.”
She also wants people experiencing grief from a fentanyl death to know there are resources available.
“Once we are gathered together and understanding our grief together, we have chosen to redirect our pain into passion, and that is to save someone else’s life by educating them about fentanyl,” Walsh said.
Skateboard wheels skid in front of Sadie’s home, scraping, squeaking, then moving on. She paces between the porch rails, trying to peek at the face below the rider’s floppy hair.
Gwyneth Brown holds a photo of her son, Laird Ramirez, a 17-year-old Mecklenburg highschoolerwho died last July after taking a pressed pill that disguised fentanyl as a Percocet, his parents said. MELISSA MELVIN-RODRIGUEZ mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Is it Laird? Looks like Laird. Sounds like him, too, Gwyneth Brown imagines Sadie, her panting, shedding German Shepherd, is thinking.
“I’m with Sadie on this one,” said Brown. “I’m still waiting for him to come home.”
The pair have been waiting more than a year for one of the skaters to kick up their board and walk up the front steps. They never do. It’s never Laird.
Laird Ramirez, a 17-year-old Mecklenburg highschooler, skateboarder and wrestler, died last July after taking a pressed pill that disguised fentanyl — a lethal synthetic opioid — as a Percocet, his parents said.
The Charlotte Observer reported a year ago on accounts from parents and students of how those $7 pills infiltrated Hough High School and how drug incidents inside Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reached a 10-year high amidst Laird’s death.
Justice, Brown said, did not follow in his wake. While law enforcement and prosecutors say they’re aggressively going after people whose drugs lead to an overdose or fentanyl poisoning, some families say they haven’t seen that — and they’re searching for ways to cope once court dates pass.
Mecklenburg death by distribution cases
A man who was 21 in July 2023 was accused of selling Laird fentanyl and charged with death by distribution.
Brown says there was video footage of that drug deal. She says the drugs captured on camera killed her son. Half a pill was still in his wallet when police returned it to her.
Overdose or Murder, Part 1: The Worst Call A Parent Can Get
When someone dies from a drug overdose, who should we blame? And how should they be punished? In Part 1 of this special “Start Here” series, ABC’s Camille Petersen explores the nationwide rise of drug-induced homicide laws, which allow for criminal charges against whoever gave or sold someone the drugs that caused their death. She takes us to North Carolina, where two families grapple with the pain and promise of these new laws.
Overdose or Murder, Part 2: ‘Perfect’ Justice?
Some families believe drug-induced homicide laws are a powerful form of justice. Others worry the laws will do more harm than good. In Part 2 of this special “Start Here” series, ABC’s Camille Petersen explores the fierce debate over these laws and how they may continue shaping our response to overdose deaths.
After years of continuously rising opioid overdoses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that overdose deaths decreased 3% in 2023, the first annual decrease since 2018. A new study shows how the increased administration of naloxone by non-medical laypersons – or bystanders with little to no medical training – could be one factor contributing to this decline.
Naloxone, best known by the brand name Narcan, became available over the counter last fall.
Making naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdose that’s commonly known as Narcan, more widely available has been part of concentrated efforts to increase layperson intervention.
The new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, says that from June 2020 to June 2022, emergency medical services reported 744,078 patients receiving naloxone across the US. The researchers found that EMS-documented naloxone administration rates fell 6.1% in this period, but the percentage of people who got naloxone from a layperson before EMS arrival increased 43.5%.
Medical examiner Dr. Steven Campman told 60 Minutes that more than two doses of naloxone, a life-saving drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, might be necessary to save the life of someone who has overdosed on fentanyl. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.
Fentvic is tracking policy for Naloxone in schools across the state. To make the policies easier to find, a table has been added to this page. Harnett County Schools has been added to the table.
If you have information on a county not recorded in the table, please share the URL with us by sending it to naloxone@fentvic.org.
Fentvic is tracking policy for Naloxone in schools across the state. To make the policies easier to find, a table has been added to this page. Wake County Schools has been added to the table.
If you have information on a county not recorded in the table, please share the URL with us by sending it to naloxone@fentvic.org.
Naloxone is now widely carried by first responders and police. Distribution efforts have also helped make the medication available to community partners.
Naloxone has quickly become a central part of harm reduction efforts nationally and within North Carolina.
Naloxone is now widely carried by first responders and police. Distribution efforts have also helped make the medication available to community partners.
“Harm reduction is the first line of defense we have. It is the on the ground, in the community response. It is by people with lived experience for people with lived experience,” shared Elyse Powell, executive director of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.
Efforts to bring naloxone into school systems are also expanding, including in Wake County Schools. School officials tell WRAL News training efforts are underway to prepare for the distribution of the medication to schools this year.
Newly-released warrants reveal a Raleigh mother and her unborn baby were among the latest overdose cases as they each died from fentanyl overdoses. The latest data serves as a warning for parents.
Seventeen North Carolinians die from an overdose each day.
Newly released warrants reveal a Raleigh mother and her unborn baby were among the latest cases as they each died from fentanyl overdoses. The latest data serves as a warning for parents.
Barbara Walsh knows the danger of fentanyl, a toxic poison her daughter died from unintentionally in August of 2021.
“Basically, you have a murder with no weapon,” Walsh said. “Fentanyl puts someone to sleep like a dog.”
Sophia drank what she thought was water in a bottle – except it was laced.
“This young woman was 24 years old, Apex High School grad, Appalachian State grad, professionally employed,” said Walsh.
A new search warrant issued by Raleigh police describes a recent suspected fentanyl death of a mother and her unborn child. It happened at an apartment in southeast Raleigh.
Police responded to a woman in cardiac arrest on Aug. 14.
A man inside the apartment told police that she took fentanyl and that he last saw her watching a movie on her phone about an hour earlier before finding her unresponsive.
Wake County EMS administered Narcan, a drug that reverses the symptoms of an opioid overdose.
But the mother and her unborn baby died.
“We are seeing about 3,600 per year die, every year it’s getting larger until this year,” Walsh said.
According to the office of the state medical examiner, there were 193 fentanyl positive deaths in May alone in North Carolina.
Despite that, yearly data is showing a downward trend. There were 3,354 fentanyl deaths in 2022, 3,341 in 2023 and 1,008 so far in 2024.
With this week being International Overdose Awareness Week, she’s hopeful parents can continue to educate their children about the dangers of fentanyl – an odorless, tasteless drug.
“Right now, 7 out of 10 pills not from a pharmacist contain fentanyl,” Walsh said. “Most people don’t know it’s in their pill, a vape or a drink.”
