Media Coverage Archives - Page 32 of 45 - Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

Chapel Hill company working to develop vaccine to prevent fentanyl overdoses

After more than 4,000 people in North Carolina died last year from fentanyl, a Chapel Hill company has a plan to cut down on deadly overdoses.

A Chapel Hill company is developing an injectable drug to cut down on deadly overdoses after more than 4,000 people in North Carolina died last year from fentanyl.

Fentanyl is the number one killer of Americans ages 18 to 45, with opioids producing the worst drug crisis in the history of the United States.

Chapel Hill-based Cessation Therapeutics says its monoclonal antibody therapy, called CSX-1004, can block the dangerous effects of fentanyl.

“Fentanyl can get to the brain really quickly,” said Andy Barrett, chief scientific officer for Cessation Therapeutics. “And the brain is where it produces its pleasurable effects and its dangerous respiratory depression.”

Without any intervention, fentanyl can enter the bloodstream and travel easily to the brain – but the monoclonal antibody can bind to fentanyl in the blood and prevent it from crossing that blood brain barrier.

“It would block all of the effects of fentanyl for at least a month,” Barrett said.

Biden White House Tells Schools to Stock Up on Narcan As Deadly Drugs Are Brought Over the Border

Border Patrol agents seized enough fentanyl in 2023 alone to kill every American citizen as the country grapples with the consequences of President Joe Biden’s open border policies.

Now, the White House is urging schools to stock up on Narcan amid a surging number of fentanyl deaths among American children.

In a letter addressed to U.S. school officials, President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urged administrators to begin keeping naloxone on hand and to train teachers on how to administer the drug if a student starts overdosing on or is poisoned by fentanyl.

In the midst of this fentanyl overdose epidemic, it is important to focus on measures to prevent youth drug use and ensure that every school has naloxone and has prepared its students and faculty to use it. Studies show that naloxone access can reduce overdose death rates, that its availability does not lead to increases in youth drug use, and that it causes no harm if used on a person who is not overdosing on opioids. It is important to note that individuals should not be afraid to administer naloxone, as most states have Good Samaritan Laws protecting bystanders who aid at the scene of an overdose. Our schools are on the frontlines of this epidemic, but our teachers and students can be equipped with tools to save lives.

Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

The fentanyl crisis has taken the lives of more than 13,000 North Carolinians in recent years and it’s currently killing eight North Carolinians a day. The rise in overdose deaths is driven by illegally manufactured fentanyl.

The group Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina recently joined NC Newsline for an extended conversation, in which founder Barb Walsh shared her family’s story, described the organization she leads, and shared some of the policy changes the group is seeking from state leaders.

Editor’s note: This is a rebroadcast of an interview NC Newsline originally aired August 20, 2023.

Listen to the interview and read the original article on the NCNewsline website.

Local mother makes it her mission to spread awareness about illicit fentanyl

Allen Michael “Mikey” Boyd had a “heart of gold” and loved interacting with people with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities. He was a “beautiful soul with a free spirit” who loved his younger brothers, spending time with friends and skateboarding, his mother, Allena Hale, shares with groups of people she meets at events that raise awareness about the dangers of illicit fentanyl use.

Hale, of Pamlico Beach, lost Boyd to fentanyl poisoning on March 31, 2022 when he was just 22 years old.

Through her work, she hopes to educate people and comfort grieving families who have similar stories of young family members that were kind, smart and funny but met untimely deaths.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl is used by medical professionals to treat patients with severe pain, and is used to treat patients with chronic pain who are “physically more tolerant to other opioids.”

When fentanyl is produced illegally, it is dropped on blotter paper, smoked, snorted/sniffed or made into pills that look similar to other opioids, per the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Guilford County Sheriff’s Office discuss fentanyl at town hall

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers held a town hall with several senior staffers Monday night to address concerns about the detention center, crime in the county and staffing concerns in the department.

Fentanyl took center stage, though.

“That was the day our whole world came crashing down … Since then, it’s been my mission to bring attention and awareness to fentanyl,” said Debbie Peeden, a grandmother who lost her granddaughter to fentanyl poisoning two years ago.

A UNC student OD’d on Duke campus, and it took a student journalist to bring the story to light

On March 9, 2023, a freshman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill overdosed on fentanyl outside a Duke University dorm.

She died in a hospital two days later, surrounded by family and friends, according to her obituary.

Very few people knew about her death, until a Duke student journalist started investigating, learning that 19-year-old Grace Burton wasn’t the only UNC student or alum to recently die from fentanyl poisoning.

She wasn’t even the only one to lose her life to an overdose that week. Now federal agents say the same person supplied the drugs to both students.

Duke student and journalist Charlotte Kramon heard about Burton’s on-campus death and figured more information would come out publicly.

But, she says, “There was no announcement; there were very few people outside of some of those who were close to the situation that knew.”

Kramon started looking into the death and charges related to it, publishing her findings along with co-author Michael Hewlett in the online magazine The Assembly.

UNC student’s family seeks justice for overdose death

The family of a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill freshman student who died after overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine on the campus of Duke University is seeking some justice for their daughter.

So far, no one has been charged in the death of Elizabeth Grace Burton, or Gracie as her family called her. She was 19 years old.

Court documents reveal Burton became “unsteady” and “wobbly on her feet” about an hour after meeting with a suspected drug dealer on March 9 outside a Duke student’s dorm. The former Duke student is Patrick Rowland, who pleaded guilty to a drug distribution charge.

An autopsy revealed Burton died two days after investigators said she met up with Rowland after a party and contacted him to buy cocaine.

The latest college campus freebies? Naloxone and fentanyl test strips

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, three students stand behind a card table covered in naloxone injection kits. When a curious student leans in and asks what the kits are for, Caroline Clodfelter, one of the co-founders of the student group running the table, explains: “It will reverse an opioid overdose. … So let’s say you’re going out to a frat — stick it in your pocket. It’s easy to just have on you.”

Nearly 600 miles away, at the State University of New York’s Delhi campus, Rebecca Harrington, who works in student affairs, has also been tabling to prevent fentanyl overdoses. Her table, though, is full of colorful cups, a water jug and candies in zip-close bags — tools for her demonstration on how to use a fentanyl test strip. These test strips allow students to see whether a pill has been laced with the deadly synthetic opioid.

Test strips and naloxone are becoming more and more common on college campuses, and at least one health department has recommended they be added to school packing lists. For students who didn’t bring their own, many campuses are handing them out at welcome fairs, orientation events or campus health centers.

As more teens overdose on fentanyl, schools face a drug crisis unlike any other
Fentanyl was involved in the vast majority of teen overdose deaths in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly a quarter of those deaths involved counterfeit pills that weren’t prescribed by a doctor. And the problem has been following teens onto college campuses.

Students may think they’re taking pills like oxycodone, Xanax or Vicodin. Instead, those pills often have fentanyl in them, resulting in overdoses on campuses across the U.S., from Ohio to Colorado to Oregon. At UNC-Chapel Hill, three students died from fentanyl poisoning in just the last two years.

A UNC Student’s Overdose Death at Duke

A Carolina freshman was found unconscious in a Duke University dorm room in March and died two days later of a drug overdose. Neither university said anything publicly about her death until contacted by The Assembly.

by Charlotte Kramon and Michael Hewlett

Paramedics rushed into a residence hall on Duke University’s Kilgo quad at about 6:30 a.m. on March 9 and climbed to the third floor of the old stone building around the corner from Duke Chapel. In room 309, they found a pale, chilled body in a puffy jacket, on her back in a twin bed and glistening in a pool of sweat.

The young woman was barely breathing, according to the 911 call log and an investigative report. A trash can sat next to the bed.

After almost an hour of treatment for cardiac arrest, an ambulance took Elizabeth Grace Burton, a business student from Charlotte and member of Zeta Tau Alpha at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to the Duke University Hospital. Two days later, she was pronounced dead. Burton was 19.

A state autopsy says she died of cardiac arrest from a toxic mix of cocaine and alcohol. A private autopsy also found fentanyl and GHB, a depressant that can give feelings of euphoria.

Until contacted by The Assembly, Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill said nothing publicly about the death. Duke said it deferred to UNC because Burton was a student there, and UNC said it considers the family’s wishes when deciding to release a statement.

No one has been charged with Burton’s death. But Burton’s companion that night, former Duke student Patrick Rowland, has pleaded guilty to using a cell phone to facilitate the distribution of cocaine and marijuana. Rowland, 22, is scheduled to appear in federal court on October 18 for a status hearing and will be sentenced in December.

Rowland could face a civil suit from Burton’s family. He is no longer at Duke. Duke officials won’t say whether he was expelled or left voluntarily.

Surge in drug overdoses reported in Greensboro

There have been at least fifteen drug overdoses in Greensboro within a span of two weeks, along with more than a dozen bodies discovered in that timeframe. According to police reports, the victims ranged drastically in age from teenagers to those in their nineties.

One of the victims, who overdosed in late September, overdosed again less than two weeks later. At least one other victim was listed as unhoused at the time of their overdose.

According to the NC Department of Health and Human Services, the rate of medication and drug overdose deaths was 29.6 per 100,000 residents in Guilford County between 2017-21. Statewide, the rate was 27.6 per 100,000 residents. As for opioid overdose deaths, Guilford County had 24.4 deaths per 100,000 residents while the state had 22.7.

More than 4,000 people died from overdoses in 2021, NCDHHS reported, and “more than 77 percent of overdose deaths in the state likely involved fentanyl, often in combination with other substances.”

The number of retail opioid prescriptions dispensed in 2020 was 55.9 prescriptions per 100 residents. Statewide, the rate was 52.8 prescriptions per 100 residents.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of drug overdose deaths nationally increased more than 16 percent from 2020-21, while opioid-involved death rates increased by more than 15 percent over the same time. More than 75 percent of the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021 involved an opioid. In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, “particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl,” the CDC states. Fentanyl is a strong synthetic opioid which can be combined with other substances such as heroin, counterfeit pills and cocaine, so people may not even be aware that they are consuming it. The lethal dose of fentanyl is much smaller than other drugs — while the lethal dose of heroin is 100 mg, fentanyl’s is just two.

In August, WRAL reported on rising fentanyl deaths and drug usage in North Carolina. The Nash County Sheriff’s Office recently confiscated “enough fentanyl to kill every person in the county,” the report stated.

Need help?

If you are struggling with drug use, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s helpline is available at 1-800-662-4357 or go to their website. The national helpline is a free and confidential treatment referral and information service for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. Help is available in English and Spanish 24/7 every day of the year.

An opioid overdose requires immediate medical attention. SAMHSA and Minutes Matter have instructions on how to spot the signs of an opioid overdose and what to do.

Are you or someone else experiencing a mental health emergency? The cities of Winston-Salem and Greensboro have new programs.

If you live in Greensboro and are experiencing a mental health crisis, the city’s behavioral health response team (BHRT) team can help. BHRT is a team of clinical mental-health counselors, licensed clinical social-worker associates, police officers and a paramedic.

If you live in Winston-Salem and are experiencing a mental health crisis, call 911 and ask for the behavioral evaluation and response (BEAR) Team, the city’s police-free mental health response crew.

Opioid overdose reversal (Naloxone/Narcan) resources:

NEXT Distro provides free Naloxone, a medicine that quickly reverses an opioid overdose, and can mail to you.

In Winston-Salem, Narcan is available at the front desk of Forsyth County Department of Public Health located at 799 Highland Ave. Last September, the county installed a free Narcan vending machine inside the Forsyth County Detention Center.

Guilford County Department of Public Health offers free naloxone kits and instructions/training on its use at these locations: