Category: Awareness

“Every life is worth saving”: How a UNC researcher’s website is connecting communities to naloxone

Read the original article and watch the video on the WRAL News website.

Delesha Carpenter’s personal tragedy has fueled her mission to combat opioid overdoses through increased naloxone access. Her new website with UNC maps naloxone availability across NC’s 100 counties.

Delesha Carpenter began her career as a researcher focused on pediatrics. A little over seven years ago, her path took an unexpected turn following the deaths of two close friends.

“A lot of people who get into this field, it’s personal,” Carpenter said. “I lost two friends within two weeks of each other to opioid overdoses. That really inspired me to increase access to naloxone.”

The researcher and professor with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy recently launched NalxoneNearMe.org. The website features an interactive map of all 100 North Carolina counties, rating them based on the number of naloxone distribution services available.

Durham County is tied with Mecklenburg County as the highest rated counties on the map with a score of 88. Wake County wasn’t far behind with a score of 77.

Carpenter told WRAL the Naloxone Availability Scores are based on the level of availability of no-cost naloxone and pharmacies that sell naloxone in each county.

Naloxone distribution resources are categorized into 14 types, including syringe service programs, EMS, harm reduction organizations, health departments, pharmacies and healthcare providers.

“The highest score a county can receive is 100, which would mean that all 14 naloxone sources included in the Naloxone Availability Score are present in that county,” Carpenter explained. “If a county had one harm reduction program in the county, they would get the same amount of ‘credit’ toward the score as a county that had two or three reduction programs.”

Increased naloxone use and availability are among the efforts researchers say have contributed to a reduction in opioid overdose deaths in recent years.

WRAL investigated how the medication works when taking viewers inside the human body to reveal the way naloxone fights against opioid overdoses.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 41,500 North Carolinians died from overdoses between 2000-2023.

As of the latest data available from 2024, overdose deaths decreased by approximately 32% from the year prior.

“One thing is everybody’s life is worth saving. It is important to carry naloxone, especially if you’re going to be in situations where people are going to be using drugs, you never know what is in the drugs that you’re using,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said increasing the availability of medications for opioid use, such as buprenorphine and methadone, would also help reduce overdose fatalities.

“Other resources that people should be aware of, and one that’s linked on our website, is Naloxone Saves. Ours tells you what types of sources are available, but you can go to the Naloxone Saves website and find the actual pharmacies that carry and stock naloxone, or find your health department and whether it’s distributing naloxone,” Carpenter added.

Naloxone will not harm someone who hasn’t taken an opioid, so it is recommended even when it is unclear what kind of drug a person has taken.

More than one dose may be needed because some opioids, like fentanyl, can take a stronger hold on the opioid receptors.

HIDDEN DANGER: As fentanyl takes over opioids, innocent victims fall prey

Read the original article on the Daily Record website.

Theresa Mathewson and Susan Burkhart never asked for this. They never asked for their mission in life to be educating others about the dangers of fentanyl, but after they both lost a child to fentanyl poisonings that’s what they’re doing.

And now — that drug they’re warning others about — is popping up in all kinds of places and hurting all kinds of people, including the innocent.

Susan Burkhart, left, and Theresa Matthewson look at a poster filled with faces of Harnett County residents killed by fentanyl poisoning. Burkhart lost her granddaughter. Matthewson lost her son. Both women now fight to save as many others as they can.

It was added to the percocet pills that killed Mathewson’s son and Burkhart’s granddaughter. Dunn police found it in pills that looked like Flintstones vitamins. Sampson County medical workers found it in cigarettes. It was even in the bottle of water that killed Sophia Walsh, whose mother leads the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. 

“Fentanyl is everywhere,” Lt. Patrice Bogertey, of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, told The Daily Record in April. “Fentanyl is commonly mixed with heroin, cocaine, meth, and other narcotics to enhance their effects. It is available in various forms, including nasal sprays, liquids, pills, and powders.”

Dealers have hidden it in liquid eye drops and Advil liquid gel pills, in candy and in edibles.

Continue reading “HIDDEN DANGER: As fentanyl takes over opioids, innocent victims fall prey”

Father turns son’s overdose tragedy into advocacy as North Carolina overdose deaths drop

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – What started as a normal day for UNCW student Alex Bradford ended in tragedy, but his father’s mission to honor his memory comes at a time with encouraging statistics about North Carolina’s fight against the overdose crisis.

“I would say by far that was the worst day of my life,” said Jeremy Bradford, Alex’s father.

Alex died in 2023 from an overdose, a life full of promise that became part of a nationwide statistic.

Jeremy Bradford heard the words no parent is ever prepared to hear.

“Because of the distance between Spring Lake and Wilmington, we didn’t initially find out. We found out through social media. Somebody texted my wife and said, ‘Hey the police and ambulance are at the boys’ apartment complex. I think something’s wrong with Alex,” Bradford said.

Jeremy says his son was having a tough day and purchased what he thought was a Percocet pill, but it was actually straight fentanyl. That was two years ago.

Now in North Carolina, the state health department reports overdose deaths are trending down.

Each day in 2023, 12 North Carolinians died from drug overdoses. But in 2024, that number decreased to 8.

Locally, numbers presented to the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners in April showed emergency room visits from overdoses decreased from 110 in 2023 to 98 in 2024.

“For the first time in over 20 years of studying this, I actually am speechless,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, a street drug expert at UNC-Chapel Hill, when asked about drug trends moving forward.

He also says trends show that most overdose deaths are between Gen X and millennials.

“What you see with Gen Z is a really different substance use pattern that’s more Psilocybin, more marijuana, a little more ketamine and ecstasy. And so they have watched their parents and their grandparents’ generations struggle with opioids and have decided that’s not the drug of choice for that generation,” said Dasgupta.

Dasgupta says there are several reasons overdose deaths are declining.

“I think we can understand the decline in overdoses in three ways. One, the drug supply is changing. Number two, people’s behaviors are changing. And number three, the demographics of who is using opioids is also changing,” Dasgupta said.

And a common activity seen in college students and drug use is sharing pills. But he says this is also on the decline.

“We see a lot less of that sharing behavior now. And that’s kind of across the board, and the problem now is not really with the prescription opioid and pills,” said Dasgupta. “Most mortalities are coming from powdered substances.”

But Jeremy Bradford believes advocacy and awareness play a role in the decline, too.

That’s why he created the 2 Out Rally Foundation to educate and advocate for mental health and empower individuals impacted by illicit fentanyl use.

They host events and advertise at places like baseball games to help parents and kids educate themselves.

“It’s been very therapeutic for our mental health to put pain to purpose. And our purpose now is to tell Alex’s story and ensure no other parent has to go through this. I’m a member of a club I never wanted to be a part of. And I don’t like new members,” Bradford said.

Bradford hopes that the death of his son will help save the lives of others, and overdose deaths will continue to decline.

“So that when it gets tough, when it is the bottom of the ninth and there are two outs, you’re not out of the game,” said Jeremy Bradford. “There’s still plenty of life to live and to move on. And you don’t need to result to a negative action that could end up taking your life.”

Newport woman sentenced for 2nd-degree murder

Read the original article on the WNCT TV9 website.

BEAUFORT, N.C. (WNCT) — Amanda Alice Blanton, 36, of Newport, pled guilty to 2nd degree murder in the death of Daniel Andrew Brisson, 46, also of Newport, and has been sentenced to 238-298 months in the Department of Adult Correction during the most recent term of Carteret County Criminal Superior Court.

The case was investigated by the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office, and the lead investigator was Courtney Howell. Assistant District Attorney David L. Spence prosecuted the case and Resident Superior Court Judge Clint Rowe presided over the matter.

The fake pill trade hasn’t gone away

The Partnership for Safe Medicines has updated their handout which explains what a pill press is and how fake pills are made.

This easy to understand handout can be used to educate people about the risks of counterfeit pills.

Man sent to prison in death by distribution case

Read the original article and view the pictures on the Wilson Times website.

A Wilson man received more than five years in prison after pleading guilty in the county’s first death by distribution case, following the fentanyl overdose death of a 25-year-old Navy veteran.

A Wilson man was sentenced Monday to an active term in state prison after pleading guilty to the first death by distribution case to be adjudicated in Wilson County.

Tabron Tyrone Farmer, 35, of the 5100 block of Wilson Road, made an Alford plea July 29 to death by distribution in the June 25, 2023, death of 25-year-old Shade Izayah Anthonee Staples. An Alford plea is an arrangement in which the defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is likely enough evidence to ensure a conviction

In Wilson County Criminal Superior Court on Monday, Resident Superior Court Judge L. Lamont Wiggins sentenced Farmer to a minimum of five years and seven months to a maximum of seven years and nine months active in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.

Farmer is the first person to be sentenced in Wilson in a death by distribution case since modifications in the death by distribution law were ratified in September 2023, providing for stiffer sentences for defendants who unlawfully deliver certain controlled substances that proximately cause a person’s death.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Spainhour told the court that on the date of his death Staples had consumed three beers at Brewmasters at lunchtime, at which time he called Farmer asking to purchase Percocet pills.

Spainhour said Staples walked to a nearby store to meet Farmer. Staples purchased two blue pills from Farmer. Spainhour said the transaction was captured on video, adding he thought he was purchasing Percocet.

Spainhour told the court that the defendant called the victim shortly thereafter saying that he thought he had given him the wrong package, that he “thought he messed up.”

At 2:22 p.m. on the date of his death, family members noticed that Staples’ speech was slurred while he was playing a video game with his sister, Spainhour said. Staples “slumped over on the couch” and was not moving and his eyes had rolled back, Spainhour told the court.

First responders could not revive Staples despite giving him the overdose reversal medication naloxone.

Spainhour said fentanyl was determined to be the cause of death.

Spainhour said the victim’s family was “devastated” by the loss.

Defense attorney Andrew Boyd told the court that his client pleaded guilty as a result of a plea arrangement in which lesser charges were dismissed.

Boyd told the court that Farmer has 12 children, is married and that his wife was in court for the sentencing.

“There is nothing we could say that would bring Shade Staples back,” Boyd said.

Farmer was ordered to pay $2,975 in counsel fees to attorney Boyd.

Wiggins revoked Farmer’s bond and ordered him taken into custody.

STAPLES A NAVY VETERAN

After the sentencing, Staples’ mother, Taira Gandarilla, formerly of Wilson and now residing in Knightdale, told the Times that her son was a Navy veteran.

“It is kind of bittersweet,” Gandarilla said. “Regardless of the outcome, it’s not going to bring Shade back, but it is very rewarding as a mother to know that even though my son sacrificed his life, we can definitely prevent somebody else from losing their life as a result of this young man’s carelessness.”

Gandarilla said it was comforting to her that other parents of Fentanyl overdose victims were in the courtroom at the time of the sentencing.

Ten families of Wilson County fentanyl overdose victims were present in the court for Monday’s hearing.

Gandarilla said that until Monday, she did not know this group existed.

“You guys didn’t know me from Sunday, and to know that I already have a family is incredibly comforting,” Gandarilla said. “You can go through therapy all day long, but the best therapy is to go through it with people who have walked in your shoes. We have than commonality that is going to forever bond us.”

Gandarilla said her son was “first and foremost a brother.”

“Shade absolutely coveted the relationship that he had with his sisters. He was the oldest of four siblings. He had three younger sisters, and those were his girls. He was incredibly family oriented. He was an old soul. For a 25-year-old man, he literally saw the world differently than anybody else I had ever met. He just saw things from a different lens. He was always asking questions. He wanted to learn as much as possible every single day.”

Two other death by distribution cases are pending in Wilson County.

Wilson County has had 151 fentanyl fatalities since 2013, according to Barb Walsh of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. She was with parents of overdose victims who were at the courthouse.

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