Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina
Stronger Together! Grassroots campaign against illicit fentanyl in NC IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity EIN: 88-3921380
A Harnett County man who died of a drug overdose has led to a Fayetteville man’s arrest.
On Sunday, first responders found a 53-year-old man unresponsive at a residence on Roger Curtis Lane in Spring Lake.
A Harnett County Sheriff’s Office investigation revealed the man had purchased narcotics from Lamont McKoy Jr., a 31-year-old from Fayetteville.
Read the full article and watch the video on the WRAL News web site.
Conversation starter buttons! 40 DESIGNS! These eye catching buttons create awareness & reduce stigma about illicit fentanyl. Mix & match! Get one for every member of the family. Proceeds from button donations will fund 2023 NC Family Summit and on-going Fentanyl Victims Network of NC grassroots programs.
One button for $10 donation, 5 buttons for $35 donation, 10 buttons for $50 donations. One sticker included with each button or received 10 stickers for a $7 donation.
Visit the FVNNC Shop for more information.
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 he’d been taking Oxycontin pills he bought on Snapchat.
He had self-medicated with pot in the past, but this was different.
“It has a hold on me, and I don’t know why,” he told them in 2020.
Alexander’s 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.
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.
“Two years ago, I knew nothing about this,” said Holly Groelle, the mother of 19-year-old Alfaro, who lived in Appleton, Wisconsin. “I felt bad because it was something I could not have warned her about, because I didn’t know.”
Read the full article on the AP web site.
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.
Following the recent seizure of about five pounds of fentanyl and the ongoing problem of local overdoses, drugs in Onslow County continue to be a major concern.
Onslow County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Colonel Chris Thomas said fentanyl results in the overwhelming majority of overdoses in Onslow County, adding the problem is rarely heroin anymore. Last week, Thomas said the county had three overdoses but was able to revive all three of them with Narcan.
One of the biggest current problems, Thomas added, is that fentanyl is now being pressed into pill form as a way of concealment.
He said the local drug enforcement unit even seized a pill press in Jacksonville a few months ago that was being used for that very reason. Thankfully, Thomas said, the county has not yet seen fentanyl in the form of candy, a growing problem throughout the nation.
Read the full article on the JDNews.com web site.
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 an 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 traffickers’ plans to smuggle fentanyl from Mexico to Bradenton, Florida, and then into Polk County.
Read the full article on the Carolina Journal web site.
On October 13, 2022 the Social Media Victims Law Center and C.A. Goldberg, PLLC filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Snap, Inc. on behalf of the families of Alexander Neville, Daniel Puerta, Jeff Johnston, Jr., Dylan Kai Sarantos, Devin Norring, Jack McCarthy, Alexandra Capelouto, and Daniel (Elijah) Figueroa. These teenagers and young adults are eight among hundreds who have died after taking pills purchased from drug dealers operating on Snapchat.
Also included in the suit are the parents of a 16-year-old who survived fentanyl pill poisoning and continues to use the app.
More details can be found on the Parternership for Safe Medicines web site.
For the first time on camera, the widow of Tyler Skaggs and his mother are sharing their story of loss after the 2019 death of the Los Angeles Angels pitcher. Skaggs was just 27 years old when he was found dead in his hotel room after taking fentanyl-laced oxycodone on the road with his team.
Over three years after Tyler Skaggs’ death, his wife, Carli Skaggs, and mother, Debbie Hetman, spoke to ABC News about what justice looks like to their family.
Read the full article on the Good Morning America web site.