Category: Fentanyl

Victims of fentanyl poisonings push for broader jurisdiction of fentanyl laws

A group of activists rallied outside the State Capitol Sunday afternoon to push for tougher punishments for people who illegally distribute fentanyl.

The group is pushing for two bills to pass, Senate Bill 189 and House Bill 250.

If the bills pass, it would broaden who gets criminally prosecuted for distributing fentanyl. As it stands, North Carolina is one of the few states that has a death-by-distribution law.

That law allows district attorneys to prosecute people who sell drugs that lead to an overdose death.

The bills would allow district attorneys to prosecute people for not just selling drugs, but for general distribution, even if there is no money involved.

“They would see the person who killed their son, or daughter, or wife or cousin in the courtroom,” Executive Director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina Barb Walsh said. “And there’s no words for that.”

Walsh and her group have been connecting family members of fentanyl overdose victims with one another to form a support group.

Read the full article and watch the video on the WRAL website.

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NC Newsline interview with Barb Walsh

In the list of horrors that a parent might ever experience, losing one’s child because she unknowingly grabbed and drank a bottle of water laced with fentanyl has to be among the worst imaginable. And tragically, that’s what happened to a North Carolina woman named Barb Walsh in 2021 when her daughter Sophia died almost instantly from fentanyl poisoning.

Read the full story and listen to the interview on the NC Newsline website.

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Families of loved ones who died from fentanyl poisoning push for justice

CONCORD, N.C. — Families in Cabarrus County are pushing for justice for loved ones who have died from fentanyl.

Beth Abernathy said her son, Marshall Abbott, died due to fentanyl poisoning last year one day before his 30th birthday.

She attended a pretrial hearing Tuesday for Aaron Furr at the Cabarrus County Courthouse. Furr was charged in connection with the death.

Furr is one of five people in Cabarrus County who have been charged with felony death by distribution since the law went into effect in 2019.

Read the full article and watch the video on the WSOCTV9 website.

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NC autopsy backlog frustrates families, leaves cases open

NORTH CAROLINA — Some North Carolina families are waiting months, even a year, to find out how their loved one died due to the state’s autopsy backlog.

Lawmakers are trying to address this in several different ways, but it is all tied up in the looming budget right now.

Barbara Walsh is the founder of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, an organization for families of fentanyl victims. She said fixing the autopsy backlog is critical to getting families closure and justice.

For months, Walsh had no idea what killed her 24-year-old daughter Sofia who had just moved to Charlotte for a new job.

“She died because she drank a water bottle that had diluted fentanyl in it,” Walsh said.

Now, families she’s helping through her organization are waiting even longer, sometimes over a year, for toxicology results as the medical examiner’s office faces a massive backlog in autopsies.

Walsh is vocal about the state budget as some lawmakers have promised to help clear the autopsy backlog.

One of the new proposals would pay pathologists more to try and fill positions at the short-staffed medical examiner’s office, which has seen a 30% increase in cases. Cases involving suspected overdose deaths are up by 58%.

Read the full story and watch the video on the WSOCTV9 website.

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Chinese fentanyl cartel ordered to pay Akron family $18M by judge

Ruling is first-of-it’s kind to go after overseas fentanyl producers

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -On Wednesday, it was announced a Summit County judge ruled in favor of the Rauh family, who’s son died of a fentanyl overdose in 2015, and ordered a Chinese cartel to pay $18 million.

Thomas “Tommy” Rauh became addicted to prescription opioids after a rollerblading accident, which then led to him using heroin.

According to his father James Rauh, Tommy tried to overcome the addiction but took a fatal dose in 2015, laced with fentanyl.

The fentanyl that killed Tommy was traced to, and produced by, the Zheng drug trafficking cartel in China.

“Our son Tommy was stolen from us,” Rauh said. “He never stood a chance against the incredibly potent poison provided by the Zhengs. All for what? The reckless and malicious greed of the Zheng cartel. To save American lives, we must stop the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illegal fentanyl and hold them accountable.”

Read the full article and watch the video on the Channel 19 website.

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Families grieving fentanyl deaths to rally in support of new laws

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The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will rally at the N.C. State Capitol Building later this month, pushing for stronger penalties for illegal distribution of the synthetic opioid and more funding for early intervention, Naloxone and processing toxicology reports. They are also asking state lawmakers for opioid overdoses to be investigated as homicides.

As NC Newsline has reported, North Carolina has been hard hit by fentanyl, an epidemic within the larger opioid epidemic. Some 13,671 North Carolinians have been killed by fentanyl in the last nine years, according to data from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner — an average of eight people per day.

Even those numbers likely do not take in the full scope of the problem, medical experts say.

In North Carolina, death certificates don’t have a specific code for fentanyl’s involvement in a drug overdose. There is a code – T40.4 — for “other synthetic narcotic overdose.” The Epidemiology, Surveillance and Informatics unit of the N.C. Division of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch notes that most of these cases are “due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogues,” but can also include prescription fentanyl and other, less potent synthetic narcotics like Tramadol.

An analysis of statistics from the state medical examiner’s office found overdose deaths with the T40.4 code rose from 442 in 2016 (the first year for which the office had such statistics) to 3,163 in 2021 — an increase of 616%.

As of April, according to OCME data, there were 1,116 fentanyl-positive overdose deaths in the state so far this year.

Read the full article on NCNewsline.com.

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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

  1. Sunday August 20, 2023, 2-4pm, Rain or Shine
  2. NC State Capitol Building, South Side, 1 West Edenton Street, Raleigh NC
  3. Parking: free on street and paid parking in municipal lots
  4. Rules: No signs on sticks/poles, no drones, no firearms/weapons, no climbing trees/walls, statues
  5. 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

Download Press Release PDF
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