WRAL News coverage of the National Fentanyl Rally held in Washington DC on September 23, 2023.
Hundreds of people from around the country attended the march and rally outside the White House yesterday. It was organized by Lost Voices of Fentanyl.
Category: Fentanyl
Rockingham County holds town hall on dangers of fentanyl
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. โ Students, teachers, and parents will attend a town hall Tuesday night in Rockingham County to talk about the dangers of fentanyl.
Itโs a hot topic thatโs growing as Rockingham County joins Guilford County on the matter.
Guilford County hosted town halls last spring. The town halls came about after a survey at Northern Guilford High School showed nearly 90% of students said drugs were a problem at school.
Kathleen Smith helped plan that meeting. Sheโs happy to see more counties doing the same.
“It feels really good, but you don’t want to pat yourself on the back too much as a school community, knowing there’s just so much more work to be done, and you know, the problem is really pervasive. I sat down with some moms and kids not long ago on my back porch and you know, I had this girl who I highly respect, who is in college; sheโs just like, โMs. Smith, everybody does it,’ kind of like, get over it, but that’s not what I want. We want to raise our kids to treat their bodies, for the most part, like cathedrals,โ Smith said.
Law enforcement officials said fentanyl really ramped up in 2015. They said what used to be a heroin problem is now a fentanyl problem.
Read the full article and watch the video on the WFMY News2 website.
The politicization of the fentanyl crisis
The country’s fentanyl crisis has become a potent political weapon, reflecting its deep and emotional impact on millions of Americans.
Why it matters: The opioid epidemic was once a rare topic that brought Republicans and Democrats together. But even as overdose deaths continue to climb, the discourse around fentanyl has become more politicized and, at times, less aligned with reality โ especially when Republicans talk about its connection to the U.S.-Mexico border.
- “When it gets to the front page, sometimes the incentives can be to use it more as a partisan weapon,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral services at Stanford.
- But also, “there is a human part. Everyone’s upset. We have all these dead bodies. People are burying their children and communities are getting destroyed.”
Read the full article on the Axios website.
App State student promotes Narcan accessibility
โNaloxone saves lives!โ senior Zoe Lebkuecher typed on each flyer with a Spanish translation under each line along with where students and anyone on campus can find Narcan.
Lebkuecherโs attendance at a welcome event she found on Engage turned into what is now a passion, spreading Narcan awareness.
Lebkuecher transferred to App State last school year and attended an event hosted by the Collegiate Recovery Community. Lebkeucher said she has been working with the group ever since because of the community she found.
The universityโs Collegiate Recovery Community helps students who are in recovery or wish to be in recovery and provides resources for those who want to support others throughout their recovery journey. The organization holds weekly recovery and community meetings.
Lebkuecher started to find ways to get involved with the Collegiate Recovery Community, which works hand-in-hand withย Wellness & Prevention Servicesย on campus.
Read the full article on the App State website.
CNN explains how Narcan can reverse an overdose
The FDA recently approved an opioid overdose antidote for over-the-counter use. CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how to use it.
Death rates for people under 40 have skyrocketed
Blame fentanyl
A new Stateline analysis shows that U.S. residents under 40 were relatively unscathed by COVID-19 in the pandemic but fell victim to another killer: accidental drug overdose deaths.
Death rates in the age group were up by nearly a third in 2021 over 2018, and last year were still 21% higher.
COVID-19 was a small part of the increase, causing about 23,000 deaths total between 2018 and 2022 in the age group, which includes the millennial generation (born starting in the early 1980s), Generation Z (born starting in the late โ90s) and children. Vehicle accidents and suicide (about 96,000 each) and gun homicide (about 65,000) all took a cumulative toll from 2018 to 2022, according to a Stateline analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Overdose deaths, however, took almost 177,000 lives in that time.
Accidental overdose became the No. 1 cause of death in 13 states for people under 40, overtaking suicide in nine states and vehicle accidents in five others;ย itโs now the top cause in 37 states. The only other change was in Mississippi, where homicide became the main cause of death, overtaking car accidents. In 40 states and the District of Columbia, overdose was the biggest increase in deaths for young people.
Read the full article on the NC Newsline website.
Police Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill Every Person 17 Times in NC Town
The extremely deadly opioid can kill in very small doses
Police in Raleigh, North Carolina, have confiscated enough fentanyl to kill 85% of the stateโs population, and every member of their town multiple times over.
According to a report from Axios, police have seized 17 kilograms of fentanyl so far in 2023.
Fentanyl is a very deadly synthetic opioid. The Drug Enforcement Agency says that 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of just a few grains of salt, is enough to potentially kill someone from an overdose. The seized amount is enough to kill 8.5 million people, 85% of the stateโs population, or the entire 470,000 strong population of Raleigh more than 17 times over.
The highly deadly substance has found its way into much of the nationโs illicit drug supply, and helped fuel the record breaking number of overdose deaths America suffered in 2021 and 2022. Raleigh is also the home of North Carolina State University, with a massive student population of over 30,000 students.
Read the full article and watch the video on the Messenger website.
I am a Force for Change
The Global Recovery Movement, Tunnel of Hope, and McShin Recovery Resources Foundation have authored a 50+ page catalog of resources for schools and communities to use. Many of the resources can be printed and customized for targeted usage.
‘Unacceptable.’ Rise in fentanyl-related deaths has parents, activists sounding alarm in NC
NORTH CAROLINA (WTVD) — As parents and activists raise their voices for action on Fentanyl Awareness Day, new data from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office shows the fentanyl problem is only getting worse in North Carolina.
In fact, there were more fentanyl-related deaths reported in just the first five months of this year compared to all of 2016 and 2017 combined. In the last twelve months in North Carolina, there have been 3,433 reported fentanyl-related deaths.
“We’re losing. we’re losing kids. We’re losing grandbabies. We’re losing sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, and it’s unacceptable,” said Barb Walsh, Executive Director of the non-profit Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.
Walsh lost her daughter, Sophia, to Fentanyl in August of 2021, after she drank a water bottle she didn’t know had fentanyl diluted in it. She said prosecutors’ decision not to press charges was crushing.
“It’s devastating to a family to know who killed your child and not be able to do anything about it,” said Walsh.
Read the full article and watch the video on the ABC11 website.
Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina hosts fentanyl awareness rally in Raleigh
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) —ย As fentanyl awareness and prevention day approaches, many people gathered for a rally at the state capital Sunday.
The rally was to help raise awareness about the innocent teenage victims who have died by unintentionally encountering fentanyl in fake prescription medications like Adderall, Xanax and Percocet.
It was hosted by the group Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, who are pushing for the passage of Senate bills 189 and Senate Bill 250, which would modify the Death by Distribution Law.
According to the group, 13,671 North Carolina residents have been killed by Fentanyl in the past nine years, and eight NC residents die each day by Fentanyl.
Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina is also calling for an increase in salaries and hiring chemists to process toxicology reports and the investigation of drug-related deaths.
Monday will mark National Fentanyl Awareness and Prevention Day.
Read the full article and watch the video on the ABC11 website.