Barb Walsh, Executive Director, 919-614-3830 barb@fentvic.org. website: www.fentvic.org Fentanyl Victims Network of NC (fentvic.org), 501(c)(3) EIN 88-3921380
Local Co-Host: Lisa Bennett, Mother of Mason Bennett, Forever 22. Valued member of fentvc.org. Public safety, education & justice advocate. 229-873-5648 lisawbennett@me.com
Purpose
SAVE LIVES! Public Safety Education Prevention Tools + Naloxone Distribution & Training
Listen-Learn-Interview devastated fentanyl victim families. It could happen to anyone!
Spark public safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills (Adderall, Xanax, Percocet), and access to life-saving naloxone in schools and the community
Connect NC Fentanyl Victim Families to one another for support and advocacy.
A man holds a poster showing Wilson County residents who have died as a result of fentanyl. Families shared their stories outside the Wilson County Courthouse in September to bring awareness to the dangers of the drug. Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will hold a town hall meeting in Wilson on Feb. 1 at the Foundation YMCA of Wilson. Drew C. Wilson | Times file photo
Event organizers are sounding the alarm on the fentanyl crisis that continues to claim lives. The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will hold a town hall meeting in Wilson from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, at Foundation YMCA of Wilson at 233 Nash St.
The purpose of the event, organizers say, is to spark public safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly when it’s found in counterfeit pressed pills like Adderall, Xanax and Percocet.
Organizers will also be distributing naloxone, which goes by the brand name Narcan, and train those attending on how to administer the lifesaving antidote. Local families will also share their heart-wrenching stories of how their loved ones have died from fentanyl poisonings. The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
Barb Walsh, founder of Fentanyl Victims Network, has been working with Wilson families who are reeling from the loss of their own children who have died as a result of unintentional fentanyl deaths. The hope, she said, is to bring awareness to a problem that is plaguing the country, the state and Wilson.
“This is a public safety problem we want to address,” Walsh said.
Walsh is holding several town halls throughout the state.
“I chose Wilson because there is a pocket of very active families,” Walsh said. “We have two death by distribution cases going on (in the court system).
Local elected officials, public health professionals, advocates, parents of fentanyl victims, first responders and representatives from the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition and the Wilson County district attorney’s office will be in attendance at the Feb. 1 town hall meeting. Local law enforcement members have also been invited, organizers said.
“I think it’s important for people to see these numbers and realize how many people are dying,” said Lisa Bennett, co-organizer of the event. Bennett lost her son, 22-year-old Mason Bennett, in February 2023. He died after taking what he believed was a Percocet, a prescription painkiller, but it was laced with fentanyl, she has said. Since her son’s death, Bennett has been working with Walsh and her nonprofit.
Walsh said 18,457 people in North Carolina have died as a result of fentanyl over a 10-year period.
From 2013 to October 2023, there have been 138 fentanyl deaths in Wilson County alone, according to state data Walsh has compiled.
SOUNDING THE ALARM
Walsh founded the Raleigh-based nonprofit after her daughter, Sophia Walsh, died from fentanyl poisoning in August 2021. Walsh’s daughter drank what she thought was a bottled water from someone’s refrigerator.
Unbeknownst to her, it contained diluted fentanyl. Sophia died, and no one called 911 until 10 hours later, Walsh said. No one was charged.
“We didn’t know what she died from until five months later,” Walsh said.
After her daughter’s death, Walsh channeled her grief into research, advocacy and justice for other victims. Walsh has worked across the state to bring awareness to the dangers of fentanyl and has worked with families to demand justice in their cases by utilizing state law and getting those responsible charged.
‘IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR CHILD’
Walsh said there’s a misconception about fentanyl deaths. She said not all deaths are the result of someone in active addiction. Some people are simply experimenting.
Seven out of 10 “street” pressed copycat pills contain lethal fentanyl additives, according to officials.
Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, is a synthetic opioid that can be lethal even in small doses.
“It could happen to your child,” Walsh said. “The pressed pills are the culprit.”
Organizers hope to educate families and encourage parents to talk with their children about the dangers that are out there.
“If we can stop just one family from having to go through this it will be worth it,” Bennett said.
Bennett said more lives will be saved if more people are armed with Narcan.
“They cannot save themselves,” Walsh said. “Someone in the community will have to save them.”
For more information about Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina visit www.fentvic.org.
Barb Walsh, Executive Director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, fights to save lives and get justice for those killed by fentanyl poisoning. Joining Barb in the fight are Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina members Michelle Murdock and Betsy Ballard Moore.
There are two episodes being aired, Part 1 is airing January 11th, Part 2 will air one week later, January 18.
Skateboard wheels skid in front of Sadie’s home, scraping, squeaking, then moving on. She paces between the porch rails, trying to peek at the face below the rider’s floppy hair.
Gwyneth Brown holds a photo of her son, Laird Ramirez, a 17-year-old Mecklenburg highschoolerwho died last July after taking a pressed pill that disguised fentanyl as a Percocet, his parents said. MELISSA MELVIN-RODRIGUEZ mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Is it Laird? Looks like Laird. Sounds like him, too, Gwyneth Brown imagines Sadie, her panting, shedding German Shepherd, is thinking.
“I’m with Sadie on this one,” said Brown. “I’m still waiting for him to come home.”
The pair have been waiting more than a year for one of the skaters to kick up their board and walk up the front steps. They never do. It’s never Laird.
Laird Ramirez, a 17-year-old Mecklenburg highschooler, skateboarder and wrestler, died last July after taking a pressed pill that disguised fentanyl — a lethal synthetic opioid — as a Percocet, his parents said.
The Charlotte Observer reported a year ago on accounts from parents and students of how those $7 pills infiltrated Hough High School and how drug incidents inside Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reached a 10-year high amidst Laird’s death.
Justice, Brown said, did not follow in his wake. While law enforcement and prosecutors say they’re aggressively going after people whose drugs lead to an overdose or fentanyl poisoning, some families say they haven’t seen that — and they’re searching for ways to cope once court dates pass.
Mecklenburg death by distribution cases
A man who was 21 in July 2023 was accused of selling Laird fentanyl and charged with death by distribution.
Brown says there was video footage of that drug deal. She says the drugs captured on camera killed her son. Half a pill was still in his wallet when police returned it to her.
After years of continuously rising opioid overdoses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that overdose deaths decreased 3% in 2023, the first annual decrease since 2018. A new study shows how the increased administration of naloxone by non-medical laypersons – or bystanders with little to no medical training – could be one factor contributing to this decline.
Naloxone, best known by the brand name Narcan, became available over the counter last fall.
Making naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdose that’s commonly known as Narcan, more widely available has been part of concentrated efforts to increase layperson intervention.
The new study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open, says that from June 2020 to June 2022, emergency medical services reported 744,078 patients receiving naloxone across the US. The researchers found that EMS-documented naloxone administration rates fell 6.1% in this period, but the percentage of people who got naloxone from a layperson before EMS arrival increased 43.5%.
Medical examiner Dr. Steven Campman told 60 Minutes that more than two doses of naloxone, a life-saving drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, might be necessary to save the life of someone who has overdosed on fentanyl. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.
Naloxone is now widely carried by first responders and police. Distribution efforts have also helped make the medication available to community partners.
Naloxone has quickly become a central part of harm reduction efforts nationally and within North Carolina.
Naloxone is now widely carried by first responders and police. Distribution efforts have also helped make the medication available to community partners.
“Harm reduction is the first line of defense we have. It is the on the ground, in the community response. It is by people with lived experience for people with lived experience,” shared Elyse Powell, executive director of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.
Efforts to bring naloxone into school systems are also expanding, including in Wake County Schools. School officials tell WRAL News training efforts are underway to prepare for the distribution of the medication to schools this year.
Newly-released warrants reveal a Raleigh mother and her unborn baby were among the latest overdose cases as they each died from fentanyl overdoses. The latest data serves as a warning for parents.
Seventeen North Carolinians die from an overdose each day.
Newly released warrants reveal a Raleigh mother and her unborn baby were among the latest cases as they each died from fentanyl overdoses. The latest data serves as a warning for parents.
Barbara Walsh knows the danger of fentanyl, a toxic poison her daughter died from unintentionally in August of 2021.
“Basically, you have a murder with no weapon,” Walsh said. “Fentanyl puts someone to sleep like a dog.”
Sophia drank what she thought was water in a bottle – except it was laced.
“This young woman was 24 years old, Apex High School grad, Appalachian State grad, professionally employed,” said Walsh.
A new search warrant issued by Raleigh police describes a recent suspected fentanyl death of a mother and her unborn child. It happened at an apartment in southeast Raleigh.
Police responded to a woman in cardiac arrest on Aug. 14.
A man inside the apartment told police that she took fentanyl and that he last saw her watching a movie on her phone about an hour earlier before finding her unresponsive.
Wake County EMS administered Narcan, a drug that reverses the symptoms of an opioid overdose.
But the mother and her unborn baby died.
“We are seeing about 3,600 per year die, every year it’s getting larger until this year,” Walsh said.
According to the office of the state medical examiner, there were 193 fentanyl positive deaths in May alone in North Carolina.
Despite that, yearly data is showing a downward trend. There were 3,354 fentanyl deaths in 2022, 3,341 in 2023 and 1,008 so far in 2024.
With this week being International Overdose Awareness Week, she’s hopeful parents can continue to educate their children about the dangers of fentanyl – an odorless, tasteless drug.
“Right now, 7 out of 10 pills not from a pharmacist contain fentanyl,” Walsh said. “Most people don’t know it’s in their pill, a vape or a drink.”
Durham has installed two Narcan vending machines as part of a broader effort to make treatment for drug overdoses more accessible.
Two Narcan vending machines are now available to the public in Durham at:
Durham County Department of Public Health, 414 E. Main St.
Durham County Detention Center, 219 S. Mangum St.
Federal health leaders visited Durham on Wednesday to discuss the importance of making Naloxone, an over-the-counter drug sold under the name Narcan, more readily available. Among the visitors were Dr. Rahul Gupta, who oversees the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Narcan is a lifesaving drug that can help reverse overdoses. During Wednesday’s visit to the detention center, Gupta said free access to the treatment is a game changer.
“Every time this happens, it’s a leading effort for the country as an example for the nation, for the state to do that.,” Gupta said. “Are there enough across the country? No. This why I’m here today … to exemplify the leading efforts right here in Durham County.”
Gupta said overdoses in North Carolina have declined in recent years, citing a 14% decrease in overdoses in the state compared to a 5% national decrease.
The vending machine at the detention center will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while the vending machine at the Department of Public Health will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
People at risk for opioid overdose, including those struggling with opioid use disorder or taking high doses of opioid medications, are recommended to carry Narcan.
Durham County Department of Public Health, 414 E. Main St.
Barb Walsh Executive Director of fentvic.org urges Davidson County School Board to install naloxone in ALL schools to save student lives from fentanyl. Race Against Drugs Day of Recovery event in Lexington, North Carolina on August 10, 2024.
