Remembering Sophia today August 16, 2023.
Category: Awareness
Fentanyl crisis needs everyone’s attention
‘They are dealing death’: WRAL Investigates goes undercover to get firsthand look at fentanyl crisis in NC
It’s a killer the size of grain of sand or the tip of a pen. Illegal fentanyl is running rampant through North Carolina, and the consequences are terrifying.
Fentanyl deaths are on the rise in North Carolina. Last year, 4,000 people lost their lives to drug overdoses in our state. The majority — 77% — died due to fentanyl poisoning.
The Nash County Sheriff’s Office recently confiscated enough fentanyl to kill every person in the county. WRAL Investigates spent several days with undercover agents and confidential informants on the streets of Nash County as law enforcement battles the war on this poison.
Early one summer morning, the Nash County Sheriff’s Special Response Team conducted a search at a mobile home. A family, including kids in their pajamas, filed out of the home. One person came out in handcuffs.
“Children put things in their mouth. That makes it more alarming,” said one member of the response team.
With their work done at the mobile home, the next raid was on, this time in Rocky Mount. A flash bang disrupts the silence at a home on Pine Street.The SRT quickly enters the home yelling, “Come to the center of the room” and “Hands Up!”
“This is an older neighborhood with a lot of good families in it. This house — drugs were bought out of it yesterday,” WRAL Investigates was told.
A search revealed fentanyl and heroin, as well as a stolen gun. The SRT also found high-powered ammunition.
“As you can see with tips of these they are capable of going through wood-framed houses and bullet-proof vests,” investigators told WRAL Investigates.
Targeting guns, drugs and gangs is the mission of the Nash County Sheriff’s Office under the direction of Sheriff Keith Stone.
Read the full article on the WRAL website.
Whose Child Dies Next? Fight Illicit Fentanyl Rally 8/20/23 Raleigh NC
NC Fentanyl Victim Families invite the public to join as they Rise Up Against Fentanyl at the
Whose Child Dies Next?
Rally @ NC Capitol National Fentanyl Awareness & Prevention Day
- Sunday August 20, 2023, 2-4pm, Rain or Shine
- NC State Capitol Building, South Side, 1 West Edenton Street, Raleigh NC
- Parking: free on street and paid parking in municipal lots
- Rules: No signs on sticks/poles, no drones, no firearms/weapons, no climbing trees/walls, statues
- Attendees: open to the public, fentanyl victim families, press, elected officials, law enforcement, educators, advocates, allies
NC Fentanyl Facts
- 13,671 NC residents have been killed by fentanyl in the last 9 years, enough to fill the Raleigh Convention Center (NC OCME)
- 8 NC residents die each day by fentanyl
- NC Infants, Toddlers, Middle & High Schoolers, and Young Adults are killed by fentanyl
- Fentanyl deaths are preventable with early intervention education and naloxone
What NC Fentanyl Victim Families Want
- To Save Lives!
- Pass Senate Bill 189! Pass Senate Bill 250! Both modify GS 14-18.4 Death by Distribution Law
- NC Legislature Must Increase Funding of NC DHHS NC OCME to increase Salaries & Hire Chemists to process Toxicology Reports. Right now there is 5-12 month delay in results reported back to grieving families & law enforcement!
- For all drug related deaths to be investigated as potential homicides & crime scenes
- To be recognized as Crime Victims by the NC Justice System & NC Law Enforcement
Organizers
| FENTANYL VICTIMS NETWORK of NC Barb Walsh, Executive Director barb@fentvic.org 919-614-3830 website: fentvic.org 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit EIN #88-3921380 | FORGOTTEN VICTIMS of NORTH CAROLINA Patricia Drewes, Founder patriciadrewes@yahoo.com 252-204-9611 FB page link: http://forgottenvictimsofnc.org/ |
“They need to get deadly fentanyl off of our streets,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “We can do more to hold accountable drug traffickers and keep the people of North Carolina safe. I’ll do everything in my power to rid our state of this scourge.”
For more extensive press release email request to barb@fentvic.org
Overdose death investigation training open to law enforcement
RALEIGH – United States Attorney Michael Easley recently announced that his office is offering Overdose Death Investigation Trainings to law enforcement agencies in Eastern North Carolina.
Trainings were held earlier this year in Fayetteville and Carteret counties. The next training is being held in Northeastern North Carolina on Aug. 2 at the College of the Albemarle in Manteo. An additional training is planned on Aug. 11 at the New Bern Police Department.
“North Carolina reported a 22% increase in overdose deaths in 2021 with more than 4,000 people losing their life in a single year, and more than 77% of the deaths likely involving fentanyl,” Easley said. “Given this new and alarming trend, we want to ensure that law enforcement is equipped with the latest tools, technology, and best practices to investigate these overdose deaths and bring charges when appropriate.”
Read the full article on The Daily Record website.
Attorney General Josh Stein Meets With Vice President To Continue Fighting the Fentanyl Crisis
Read the full article on the NC DOJ website.
Fentanyl deaths impact Rutherford County families
This article appeared in the July 17 print edition of the Rutherford Courier. The text from the article was extracted from a scan of the print article to make it easier to read.
By Scott Carpenter
Bill’s CREEK — Fentanyl is potent opioid drug, considered 50 times more powerful than heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were over 107,00 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2022. and 2/3 were fentanyl related.
Fentanyl affects every corner of the United States including Rutherford County. A nonprofit group called Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is working to raise awareness of fentanyl in order to prevent more people deaths. Maria Deckert is spearheading the effort in Rutherford County. The local organization is aligned with other similar groups across North Carolina.
Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is hosting meeting on Sunday, August 6, from 2-4 p.m. at Bill’s Creek Community Center, 1978 Club House Road, Lake Lure. This meeting is for families and friends of those who have died from fentanyl overdoses. And it is for anyone with an interest in learning more about the fentanyl problem. Deckert said Monday. “We want to Come together, and share our stories. We want to help saves by informing the public about the dangers of fentanyl.”
For Deckert who lives in Rutherford County, this is personal. Her son, Robert Deckert, was 33 years old when he died in Florida just over four years ago. He had struggled with drug abuse for several years but was going through rehabilitation.
“I don’t want to see others die like he did. I don’t want other families to go through the grief that we are going through,” Deckert said.
Since 2013. more than 13,600 in North Carolina have been killed by fentanyl. Statistics indicate there been 84 fentanyl related deaths in Rutherford County over the past nine years.
“This means there are 84 families that are permanently damaged by fentanyl,” Deckert said.
For the same period 57 fentanyl deaths in Cleveland County and 50 fentanyl deaths in McDowell County.
Eckert says fentanyl has killed not only active drug users but people who have accidentally come into contact with the drug.
“Fentanyl does not discriminate,” she said. “Fentanyl kills babies, toddlers, middle schoolers and high schoolers, college students young adults.”
In order to better combat the fentanyl problem, Eckert says more people need to be made aware of it.
“We want to prevent more fentanyl deaths,” she said.
For more information about the Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl meeting, call 828-291-7951
You can find the original article on the Rutherford Courier website however it requires a subscription to access it.
Teens in rehab; CMS wrestler dead. Parents say fentanyl has breached school.
A boyish light had just seeped back into Laird Ramirez’ eyes.
The end of wrestling season brought more free time. With it, he mixed music, cracked jokes and relaxed. He loved life, and he loved his family. He was 17 and acting like it.
His smile was big, and his heart was beating.
The Hough High School rising junior wore well the unique independence that comes with being a teenager, his mom said.
But on July 1, he needed his parents one last time.
Authorities called Gwyneth Brown and Chris Ramirez to the two-story home in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.
They needed to identify his body — robbed of light and color — at a home in Cornelius, paramedics told them.
The night before he’d come and gone from the home, a friend’s house, a few times. At around 3 a.m., he’d returned for good and was chatting with friends when he abruptly beelined for a bed. He said didn’t feel good, his friends told his parents.
Twelve hours later, friends found him dead.
A fatal dose of fentanyl — from a pill he thought was a Percocet — killed him, his mom says.
Nine days later, police arrested and charged 21-year-old Ehsanullah “Sean” Ayaar with death by distribution, according to the Cornelius Police Department. He’s accused of supplying the drug that killed a juvenile, police said previously. A police statement indicates the death was in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.
NC man charged for selling a minor drugs that caused fatal overdose, police say
A 21-year-old has been charged with death by distribution after a juvenile died earlier this month of an overdose in Cornelius, according to police.
On July 1, police received a call around 3:15 p.m. about a possible overdose, the Cornelius Police Department said in a news release. When officers arrived they learned a juvenile was dead.
Detectives identified 21-year-old Ehsanullah “Sean” Ayaar as the source of the drugs, police said.
On Monday, Ayaar was arrested and charged with felony death by distribution. He was issued a $100,000 secured bond at the Mecklenburg County jail and was released on Wednesday morning.
Read the full article on Yahoo.com.
The deadly counterfeit drug trade thrives in North Carolina
