Category: Awareness

Union Co. opioid overdose deaths up 166% in 2023, mostly from fentanyl

Law enforcement says many of the 32 deaths in 2023 were first-time users who didn’t know they were taking fentanyl.

ONROE, N.C. (WBTV) – A 166% increase in opioid deaths happened in Union County last year, with fentanyl being the main factor.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office wants families to be aware that many of the victims are not serious drug users, but rather first-time users who may not even know they’re taking fentanyl.

According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, 32 people died from opioid overdoses in 2023. That’s 166% higher than the previous year. Additionally, overdose calls were up 17% in the county at 170 in total.

Union County Sheriff’s Lt. James Maye said that it’s important for people, especially parents, to be aware of the hidden dangers of fentanyl. First, it’s incredibly potent.

“Powdered fentanyl, you’re talking about an amount less than the size of a penny could end a person’s life,” Maye said.

Those taking fentanyl often aren’t even aware they’ve done so.

“It’s often not your longtime drug user,” Maye said. “It may be one of your teenagers, a local student. They may want to try something like Xanax or Adderall, but it could be fentanyl and they don’t even know it.”

Continue reading “Union Co. opioid overdose deaths up 166% in 2023, mostly from fentanyl”

Billboard Campaign: Who Dies Next?  fentvic.org hosts PSA Campaign

FIGHT FENTANYL to SAVE LIVES Digital Billboard Campaign

In Gaston, Mecklenburg, and Union Counties, NC
1/7—1/21/2024

CONTACT

Barb Walsh, Executive Director, 919-614-3830, barb@fentvic.org
Fentanyl Victims Network of NC (fentvic), 501(c)(3) EIN 88-3921380 www.fentvic.org
Contact Barb to schedule interviews with local fentanyl victim families

4 LOCATIONS: Gaston, Mecklenburg and Union County, NC (see below)
Gastonia, Gaston County: I-85 just north of Cox Road exit facing South
South Charlotte, Mecklenburg County: 1) I-77 Southbound, near Westinghouse Blvd 2) I-77 Northbound, north of I-485 interchange, 3/10 mile Arrowood Rd
Monroe, Union County: US-74 Walkup Avenue, faces east

DETAILS
  • 1/7@12am -1/21/24@11:59pm. Runs 24/7, digital and illuminated.
  • Hosted by fentvic.org, NC fentanyl victim families and corporate good citizen Adams Outdoor (Julie Belnap, Account Executive)
  • Features 15 NC fentanyl fatality victims killed by fentanyl 15 different ways.
  • 1/20/24 Family Summit on Fentanyl Fatalities: Public Safety, Awareness & Justice.
  • 10:30-3:30. Private Event for NC Fentanyl Victim Families & Press who pre-register. Separate press release to be issued.
PURPOSE:
  1. SAVE LIVES!
  2. Spark public safety conversations within communities and amongst families about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills (Adderall, Xanax, Percocet)
  3. 7 out of 10 ‘street’ counterfeit pills contain lethal dose of fentanyl additives (DEA 2023)
  4. Raise awareness about 16,228 NC fentanyl fatalities, 2013-September 2023 (NC OCME)
  5. 1,615 fentanyl fatalities combined occurred in Gaston (311), Mecklenburg (1,118) and Union (186) 2013-Sept 2023 (source: NC State Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Death Certificate Data)
  6. Links to fentanyl fatality data on fentvic.org website:
ABOUT
  • Fentvic is a charitable nonprofit located in Wake County NC. EIN #88-3921380
    • Fentvic is a action oriented grassroots nonprofit that promotes Public Safety, Education, Justice, Advocacy, and Support of NC fentanyl victim families in all 100 NC Counties
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Rutherford County man found guilty for mailing drugs that killed Iowa vicitm

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WSPA) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced that a man was found guilty after mailing heroin and fentanyl that killed a man in Dubuque, Iowa.

According to evidence in the trial, James Adam Earwood, 38, of Lake Lure, North Carolina mailed a package of heroin and fentanyl to another person on November 18, 2021. Officials said that Earwood was living in North Carolina at the time and the victim was living in Dubuque, Iowa. 

The victim used heroin and fentanyl and overdosed in the parking lot of a local business in Dubuque and survived. According to officials, one month later the victim received another package of heroin and fentanyl in the mail from Earwood on December 17, 2021. The victim used the heroin and fentanyl and died shortly after.  He was found dead by hotel staff in a hotel in Dubuque, Iowa. 

Evidence revealed that Earwood was using social media platforms on the dark web to arrange transactions of heroin and fentanyl with other people. Investigators tracked down at least one other package of heroin and fentanyl that Earwood had sent.

Earwood is being held by the United States Marshals until he can be sentenced.  A sentencing date has not been set yet.

Read the full story on the WSPA TV7 website.

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Put naloxone in schools so it can save lives

Drug-overdose deaths among people 10–19 years old jumped 109% between 2019 and 2021 in the U.S. To save lives, the AMA supports widespread access to safe and affordable opioid overdose-reversal drugs.

“We are facing a national opioid crisis and it’s affecting our young people at an alarming rate. Just as students carry prescription inhalers to treat an asthma attack, we must destigmatize substance-use disorders and treat naloxone as a lifesaving tool,” said Bobby Mukkamala, MD, chair of the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force.

“Fortunately, an overdose tragedy can be reversed if quick action is taken with these safe and effective medications like naloxone,” Dr. Mukkamala said. “Allowing teachers and students to carry these medications is a commonsense decision and will no doubt result in young lives saved.”

Continue reading “Put naloxone in schools so it can save lives”

Fentanyl super labs in Canada pose new threat for U.S. opioid epidemic

Police discovered a fentanyl lab in April near Vancouver. The spread of such labs in Canada could undermine U.S. enforcement efforts and worsen the opioid crisis in both nations. (Courtesy Vancouver Police Department)

At a rural property an hour outside Vancouver in October, Canadian police found 2.5 million doses of fentanyl and 528 gallons of chemicals in a shipping container and a storage unit. Six months earlier, they raided a home in a cookie-cutter Vancouver subdivision packed with barrels of fentanyl-making chemicals, glassware and lab equipment.

Thousands of miles away outside Toronto, police in August found what is believed to be the largest fentanyl lab so far in Canada — hidden at a property 30 miles from the U.S. border crossing at Niagara Falls, N.Y.

U.S. authorities say they have little indication that Canadian-made fentanyl is being smuggled south in significant quantities. But at a time when record numbers of people are dying from overdoses in the United States, the spread of clandestine fentanyl labs in Canada has the potential to undermine U.S. enforcement efforts and worsen the opioid epidemic in both nations.

Investigators in Canada say the labs are producing fentanyl for domestic users and for export to Australia, New Zealand and, they assume, the United States.

“It’d be hard to believe it’s not occurring,” said Philip Heard, commander of the organized crime unit for police in Vancouver, a city hard-hit by fentanyl overdose deaths. “Most police leaders I’ve spoken to believe our production outstrips what our domestic demand is.”

The Canadian labs are a curveball for U.S. authorities whose efforts to combat fentanyl are focused on the southern border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has installed about $800 million worth of powerful scanning and detection equipment at land border crossings since 2019. Nearly all that technology has been deployed along the U.S. southern border, where CBP confiscated nearly 27,000 pounds of fentanyl during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the most ever.

Continue reading “Fentanyl super labs in Canada pose new threat for U.S. opioid epidemic”

Two new North Carolina laws change fentanyl fines, concealed carry rules

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Dozens of new laws are now in effect in North Carolina as of Dec 1.

Some deal with stricter fines for drug traffickers, while others deal with election law. WECT News took a closer look at two of them.

Senate Bill 41

Part of Senate Bill 41, introduced by State Senator Danny Britt Jr., is now in effect in North Carolina. The part of the law now in effect allows concealed carry permit holders to bring firearms to places of worship that also have schools.

See WECT web site for remainder of their conent regarding Senate Bill 41.

Senate Bill 189

“An act to increase the fine imposed on persons convicted of trafficking in heroin, fentanyl, or carfentanil” will increase the fines for people convicted of drug trafficking who have between 4-14 grams of the substance on them.

The fine increase is from $50,000 to $500,000. That’s a 900% increase.

Barbara Walsh lost her daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning at just 24 years old. Sophia died after drinking fentanyl from a glass of water, but the family didn’t find that out until months after her death.

Walsh says she hopes the new law with an increased fine will be enough to curb traffickers from selling or distributing the lethal drug.

“I think that is a deterrent for people to think twice about trafficking fentanyl, and maybe it will save somebody’s life,” Walsh said.

While the new law can’t bring back her daughter, she hopes it could save others’ lives in the future.

“We’re paying it forward for unfortunately the eight people who die every day from fentanyl in North Carolina,” Walsh said.

The DEA reports that just one gram of fentanyl can kill 500 people.

Walsh founded the non-profit, Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, after her daughter’s death. She works with families across the state who have lost a loved one to fentanyl and encourages those who want support to join.

Copyright 2023 WECT. All rights reserved.

Overdoses were finally on the decline in NC. The pandemic reignited the crisis.

Fatal overdoses in North Carolina had finally started to decline.

After steadily rising for years, deaths dropped by 7% in 2018, despite the growing prevalence of fentanyl, an opioid even more potent and deadly than heroine.

The state had aggressively invested in fighting the opioid crisis — it expanded access to evidence-based treatment, sent Narcan to at-risk areas and reduced medical dispensing of opioids.

Low overdose numbers in 2019 seemed to confirm the efforts were paying off.

People in the NC Department of Health and Human Services started believing it was possible to meet a goal they had set back in 2016: to cut the expected overdoses in 2024 by 20%.

“There was a lot of hope in those two years before the pandemic,” said Mary Beth Cox, a substance use epidemiologist DHHS.

Then COVID-19 hit.

“Who knows where we would have been if the pandemic hadn’t happened?” Cox said.

INCREASED ISOLATION, DISAPPEARING TREATMENT AND SUPPORT GROUPS

Loneliness and social isolation became more common. It became harder to send Narcan out into the community. Support groups and treatment centers transitioned online.

“You can do group therapy on the phone or in video, but it’s still not true connection,” said Ellen Stroud, who directs addiction and management operations for the state’s opioid response. “And that’s really a huge part of recovery.”

Disturbing data began emerging.

In the first year of the pandemic, fatal overdoses in the state shot up by 40%. In 2021, deaths increased by an additional 22%.

Continue reading “Overdoses were finally on the decline in NC. The pandemic reignited the crisis.”
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