Fentanyl Archives - Page 28 of 57 - Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

Fentanyl deaths rising among NC children

Read the original article on the WUNC website. This article originally appeared on the NC Health News website.

LEXINGTON — On a recent Saturday, family members gathered in a circle at a church here to share stories of loved ones lost to fentanyl.

“Our whole world is turned upside down,” said Michelle, a Forsyth County mother who lost her 19-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning. She didn’t want to use her full name for this story or go into details about his death, as authorities are still investigating.

She doesn’t think her son knew he had taken fentanyl, which has become more common as drug dealers add it to everything from heroin to fake prescription medications.

Just a few grains of the highly potent opioid — about 2 milligrams, an amount that’s barely enough to cover the date on a penny — can be fatal. In 2021, fentanyl was involved in 83 percent of fatal medication or drug overdoses in the state, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

“If this can happen to him, this can happen to anybody,” said Michelle, who has made it her mission to help educate other parents about the dangers of fentanyl.

She’s not alone in her fight.

Barbara Walsh, whose Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina organized the recent Lexington meeting, is pushing for North Carolina to require that the opioid reversal drug naloxone be available in all schools. Her 24-year-old daughter died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021 after unknowingly drinking a bottle of water laced with the drug.

“Large-scale” fentanyl dealer arrested after two-month undercover drug investigation in Selma, Johnston County deputies say

Read the original article and watch the video on the CBS17 website.

SELMA, N.C. (WNCN) — Agents with the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office narcotics division and STAR team put a huge drug case behind them this week.

According to deputies, numerous agents pulled up to 720 Campground Road Wednesday to execute a search warrant at the home. Inside were two adults and one child, including the subject of the investigation, 29-year-old Rashid Campbell. No one else in the residence were criminally charged.

Deputies say approximately 6,000 fentanyl pills were seized during the arrest, with a street value of $125,000. More pills were seized in numerous purchases in their two-month undercover investigation.

Additionally, deputies say they located three firearms, cash, and a money counting machine inside the home.

Campbell, who is a convicted felon, was arrested for numerous firearm and drug charges. They include multiple counts of trafficking in opium or heroin as well as possession of a Schedule II controlled substance with intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver.

Campbell appeared in court Friday for the charges, where his bond was set by the clerk for $2.5 million.

Meta Has Run Hundreds of Ads for Cocaine, Opioids and Other Drugs

Instagram and Facebook, already under federal investigation, still collect revenue from ads that violate its policies

Read the original article on the Wall Street Journal website (subscription may be required)

Meta Platforms is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs, months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the social-media giant was facing a federal investigation over the practice.

The company has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs. A review by the Journal in July found dozens of ads marketing illegal substances such as cocaine and prescription opioids, including as recently as Friday. A separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads.

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Man charged with death by distribution after woman dies from drugs he sold to her, deputies say

Read the original article on the WFMY News 2 website.

DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — Six months after a woman died by an overdose, Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said it has arrested the person who supplied her the drugs.

The investigation began on January 28, when deputies said they responded to the death of an adult female in the Wallburg community. Then in July, detectives received toxicology results from the state medical examiner’s office that confirmed the death was due to fentanyl.

As a result, detectives arrested 47-year-old Wayne Phillips on July 26. He was charged with one count of death by distribution.

Phillips was ordered to be held at the Davidson County Detention Center.

GANGSTER MARK ZUCKERBERG RUNNING FACEBOOK ADS FOR DRUGS FOUND TO BE LACED WITH FENTANYL

Read the original article the Futurism.com website.

“BECAUSE OF THIS APP, MY CHILD DOES NOT GET TO LIVE.”

Despite a federal investigation into the practice, Meta continues to run ads on Facebook and Instagram selling cocaine and other illicit drugs — some of which have been found to contain fentanyl, a deadly opioid linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the company’s ad marketplace was until recently still making money from ads for illicit drugs months after it was revealed that federal prosecutors in Virginia are investigating the troubling trend.

Despite running counter to its own policies banning such ads, tech-savvy dealers manage to skirt Meta’s rules by posting photos of their wares instead of writing out what they’re selling in the product description, which would trigger the AI censors deployed on the social networks. In one such ad found by the WSJ, the letters “DMT” are spelled out in what is presumably a powdered version of the powerful hallucinogen, which is short for the chemical name N,N-Dimethyltryptamine.

Man Indicted for Allegedly Selling 2 Tons of Fentanyl

Read the original article and watch the video on NTD.com.

The Justice Department indicted a Chinese national Monday for allegedly importing 4,000 pounds of fentanyl precursors into the United States. It’s one of the largest fentanyl seizures to date. The chemicals are enough to make pills that could kill millions of Americans.

NC schools should have naloxone, train staff on signs of drug abuse, student group says

Read the original article on the WRAL News5 website.

The State Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council drafted model legislation to address a problem they’re seeing among classmates.

Some North Carolina students want to do something about rising drug use and mental health issues among young people.

On Thursday, a student group told the State Board of Education that schools should have wellness teams to help intervene when they see problems.

Sarah Beitar, a member of the State Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, said she knows someone at her Harnett County high school who overdosed.

“We have freshmen, so children as young as 14 and 15, having to deal with these topics of overdose and making sure that they’re being safe,” she said.

Fentanyl victims group pushing for Naloxone in all school

Read the original article and watch the video on the Queen City News website.

STATESVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — “I’m doing this because my 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, was killed by fentanyl on August 16th. And I didn’t even know how to spell fentanyl,” said Barb Walsh, the executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.

She’s been a voice for families suffering the loss of a loved one by fentanyl poisoning.

“It’s just a network of damaged families who are getting together and finding their power and their passion to heal one another, but also to stop that not from killing someone else,” Walsh said.

The network includes counties like Mecklenburg, Rowan, Iredell, and Catawba. Pictures of those who lost their lives to the poisoning lined the walls at the Bristol Road community center.

Many of their families are doing their best to keep their memories alive.

“Fentanyl took my husband on November 2023, And it has changed our whole daily routine. He was in my house every single day walking around and now he’s not,” said Stephanie Triplett. She started “Embers for Ashes” in response to the death of her husband.

“In 2022, my son T.J. passed away of fentanyl poisoning. He had 18 nanograms of fentanyl in his body, which is enough to kill nine people. He had taken what he thought was oxycodone, but it was a pill that had fentanyl. And he’s been gone since 2022,” said Stephanie Duck. She started “TJ’s Story Lives On”

Through tears, families discussed their losses — but also laid out an action plan to save other victims from death – putting naloxone in every school.

“We just don’t know where a young person might encounter fentanyl. And so the safest thing is to have an antidote within the school, just like an ied, just like an EpiPen, just like a fire extinguisher. It’s not expensive. So we’re advocating for doses per school, not just with school resource officers, but as an emergency first aid kit,” Walsh said.

Woman convicted in Death by Distribution Case in Carteret County

BEAUFORT, N.C. (WNCT) — A 42-year-old woman pled guilty to death by distribution of controlled substances in the death of 30-year-old Pawnee Schmitz.

Carteret County Sheriff’s deputies found Schmitz’s phone at the scene and found conversations regarding drug purchases with multiple individuals the night before Schmitz’s death.

Search warrants for Schmitz’s phone records resulted in the arrest of three people including Melissa Mastropierro. Mastropierro, 42, of Atlantic, was sentenced to just more than five years to eight years in prison.

According to District Attorney Scott Thomas, on May 29, 2023, Carteret County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to Community Road in Davis. Schmitz’s father made the call to law enforcement, reporting that he found Schmitz lying prone and unconscious on the bathroom floor. EMS arrived to find Schmitz deceased.

Drug paraphernalia and two small bags of methamphetamine and fentanyl were discovered close to Schmitz’s body, according to the sheriff’s office. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was from methamphetamine and fentanyl toxicity.

Read the article on the WNCT News9 website.

Man charged with selling drugs after fatal overdose at Raleigh nightclub

Luis Baez-Roman was arrested and charged with trafficking schedule I, possession with intent to sell and deliver methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and maintain vehicle for the distribution of controlled substances.

Raleigh police have arrested a man after they say someone died after buying drugs from him at a Raleigh nightclub earlier this month.