Fentvic Billboard Campaign 4
Category: Fentanyl
Jelly Roll urges Congress to pass anti-fentanyl trafficking legislation: “It is time for us to be proactive”
Rapper-turned-country singer Jelly Roll spoke about the importance of prioritizing the fentanyl crisis at a Senate hearing on Thursday.
The musician, whose real name is Jason DeFord, testified before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Jelly Roll urged Congress to pass Brown’s Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which would wield financial sanctions against drug traffickers to disrupt the flow of opioids coming in from China and Mexico.
Jelly Roll, who from the age of 14 spent 10 years in and out of detention facilities for drug dealing and other crimes, said he was part of the problem but now wants to be part of the solution.
“I brought my community down. I hurt people,” he testified. “I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemists with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about, just like these drug dealers are doing right now when they’re mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl. And they’re killing the people we love.”
Sen. Brown cited data showing 110,000 Americans died due to unintentional drug overdoses in 2022.
Read the full article and watch the video on the CBS News website.
2023 child Fentanyl deaths reach record high in North Carolina
Data from the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force indicates nearly three dozen children under the age of 17 died from fentanyl in 2022.
Nearly three dozen North Carolina children died from fentanyl in 2022, marking another record high in childhood deaths from the deadly substance.
Ten children under 6 years old and 25 teenagers between 13 and 17 years old died from the drug, according to data presented to the unintentional death prevention committee of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force on Thursday. The task force didn’t present data on children between 6 and 12.
In 2021, 11 young children and 14 teens died from fentanyl. In 2015, it was one for teens.
“We have a problem,” said Michelle Aurelius, the chief medical examiner for the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. “It is reflected not only nationally, but here in North Carolina. We’re in trouble.”
In 2022, there were 4,243 suspected overdose deaths in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In 2023, through November, there were 3,853 suspected overdose deaths.
Deaths among adolescents often stem from them choosing to take drugs, including fentanyl.
Continue reading “2023 child Fentanyl deaths reach record high in North Carolina”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:
- SAVE LIVES!
- Spark public safety conversations within communities and amongst families about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills (Adderall, Xanax, Percocet)
- 7 out of 10 ‘street’ counterfeit pills contain lethal dose of fentanyl additives (DEA 2023)
- Raise awareness about 16,228 NC fentanyl fatalities, 2013-September 2023 (NC OCME)
- 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)
- 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
Fentanyl dealer, boyfriend sentencing help bring justice for family
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.
Fentanyl super labs in Canada pose new threat for U.S. opioid epidemic
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”Barbara Walsh Speaks to Wake County School Board on Naloxone in Schools
Two arrested after nearly 120 pounds of fentanyl seized in traffic stop, Iredell County Sheriff’s Office says
Officials seized enough of the drug to kill every person in North Carolina more than two times over.
IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Two people are in jail after the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office seized almost 120 pounds of suspected fentanyl mixed with cocaine during a traffic stop on Sunday.
The two people, one from Mexico and the other from New Mexico were traveling on I-77 from Charlotte to Philadelphia in a tractor-trailer when they were stopped by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office Interstate Criminal Enforcement Team (ICE) for a traffic violation.
During the traffic stop, ICSO K-9 Groot indicated the presence of narcotics in the tractor-trailer. After searching the vehicle, deputies located 120 lbs of suspected fentanyl mixed with cocaine, which has a street value of $3.75 million.
Deputies said that they seized enough of the drug to kill every person in the entire state of North Carolina – two and a half times over.
Read the full article and watch the video on the WCNC website.