In part three of a series, Bob Woodruff watches a drug seizure at the U.S.-Mexico border, speaks with a convicted drug dealer and one sheriff who is fighting to keep people like him off the streets.
Category: National News
Fentanyl killed their son. Now theyโre begging parents to understand the dangers
CNN โ
It was every parentโs worst nightmare.
Two days after Christmas 2020, Chris Didier went into his son Zachโs bedroom in their home near Sacramento. The accomplished student, school theater actor and athlete was unresponsive at his desk โ his head lying on his arm.
โI could feel before I even touched him that something was horribly wrong,โ said Chris.
Read the full story and watch the video on CNN.com
Hidden Fentanyl Is Driving a Fatal New Phase in US Opioid Epidemic
Bloomberg has posted an article which has a detailed analysis of the increase of fentanyl related deaths over the past decade. The article contains a number of dynamic graphics and should be viewed on the Bloomberg web site. The graphic above is just one of the many graphics included in the article.
A major drugmaker plans to sell overdose-reversal nasal spray Narcan over the counter
Drug maker Emergent BioSolutions is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell Narcan over the counter, without need for a prescription.
The medication, an easy-to-use nasal spray version of the drug naloxone, has a strong track record reversing deadly opioid overdoses, which have soared in recent years largely because of the spread of fentanyl.
Read the full article on the NPR web site.
DEA Family Summit Nov 2022
More teenagers dying from fentanyl. โIt has a hold on me, and I donโt know whyโ
The summer before 14-year-old Alexander Neville would have entered high school, he sat both of his parents down at the kitchen table in their Aliso Viejo home and told them heโd been taking Oxycontin pills he bought on Snapchat.
He had self-medicated with pot in the past, but this was different.
โIt has a hold on me, and I donโt know why,โ he told them in 2020.
Alexanderโs mother, Amy Neville, said they called a treatment program the next day and were waiting to hear back on rehab facilities. Alexander got a haircut, went to lunch with his dad and said goodnight to his parents before going up to his bedroom at the end of the day.
Read the full article on the LA Times web site.
As fentanyl drives overdose deaths, mistaken beliefs persist
Lillianna Alfaro was a recent high school graduate raising a toddler and considering joining the Army when she and a friend bought what they thought was the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in December 2020.
The pills were fake and contained fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin. It killed them both.
โTwo years ago, I knew nothing about this,โ said Holly Groelle, the mother of 19-year-old Alfaro, who lived in Appleton, Wisconsin. โI felt bad because it was something I could not have warned her about, because I didnโt know.โ
Read the full article on the AP web site.
Do You Know What A Pill Press Is?
Drug counterfeiters can acquire a pill press and a counterfeit pill mold to churn out counterfeit medications for less than $500. Unfortunately, “garage manufacturers” are not careful about manufacturing controls, and their products often contain fatal doses of fentanyl or other drugs. Since 2015, bootleg prescription drugs made with machines like these have killed unsuspecting Americans in 37 states.
The Partnership for Safe Medicines has more information about Pill Presses on their web site.
Natural High – Fentanyl PSA Film (6-Minutes) Dead On Arrival
Drug bust with enough fentanyl to kill millions has NC connection
Enough fentanyl to kill nearly 3 million people was seized in two separate drug busts with connections to North Carolina this past month.
The fentanyl crisis is at anย all-time high, with the southern border crisis intensifying since the Biden Administration took office in 2021.
The first and biggest bust occurred on Oct. 12 when Mario Alberto Castro Solache, 29, of Raleigh; Pedro Mondragon, 27, of Lillington; and Ignacio Rodriguez, 28, Bradenton, Florida, were arrested in connection to the largest drug bust in the history of Polk County, Florida.
Florida officials announced the arrests on Oct. 22.
Investigators seized 11 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill 2.7 million people.
Operation Hot Dirt began in September when detectives were tipped off to drug traffickersโ plans to smuggle fentanyl from Mexico to Bradenton, Florida, and then into Polk County.ย
Read the full article on the Carolina Journal web site.