National News Archives - Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

Bipartisan pair of senators reintroduce bill to expand fentanyl testing in hospitals

Read the original article on the NBC News website.

First to NBC News: The bill from Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., is called “Tyler’s Law,” named after a California teenager who died following a fentanyl overdose.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind.

WASHINGTON — Nearly seven years after Tyler Shamash, a 19-year-old from California, died following a fentanyl overdose, a bill that his mother says could have prevented his death is getting renewed focus nearly 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C.

Shamash overdosed a few days before he died while he was living at a sober living house in 2018. His mom, Juli Shamash, was told he tested negative for drugs because the five-panel tox screen doesn’t test for fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

“Had we known, we could have sent him to a place with a higher level of care, instead of the sober living home where he died,” Juli Shamash said in a statement.

She said she believes the doctor didn’t know that fentanyl isn’t included in the standard test run in emergency rooms across the country, which tests for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, PCP and natural and semisynthetic opioids, but not synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., on Tuesday reintroduced the bill, called “Tyler’s Law,” that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to provide hospitals with guidance on implementing fentanyl testing in routine ER drug screens, according to a news release first shared with NBC News.

In the House, Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., also reintroduced the legislation Tuesday.

Juli Shamash said, “This bill will save lives in situations like Tyler’s, as well as in cases where people are brought into an ER for an overdose of one substance, but they unknowingly consumed fentanyl from a poisoned product.”

Deadliest phase of fentanyl crisis eases, as all states see recovery

The deadliest phase of the street fentanyl crisis appears to have ended, as drug deaths continue to drop at an unprecedented pace. For the first time, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have now seen at least some recovery.

Read the original article on the NPR website.

A new analysis of U.S. overdose data conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also found that the decline in deaths began much earlier than once understood, suggesting improvements may be sustainable.

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ABC News “Start Here” Podcast features two North Carolina families

Overdose or Murder, Part 1: The Worst Call A Parent Can Get

When someone dies from a drug overdose, who should we blame? And how should they be punished? In Part 1 of this special “Start Here” series, ABC’s Camille Petersen explores the nationwide rise of drug-induced homicide laws, which allow for criminal charges against whoever gave or sold someone the drugs that caused their death. She takes us to North Carolina, where two families grapple with the pain and promise of these new laws.

Overdose or Murder, Part 2: ‘Perfect’ Justice?

Some families believe drug-induced homicide laws are a powerful form of justice. Others worry the laws will do more harm than good. In Part 2 of this special “Start Here” series, ABC’s Camille Petersen explores the fierce debate over these laws and how they may continue shaping our response to overdose deaths.

AG Merrick Garland Delivers Remarks To Fentanyl Victims’ Families At 2024 DEA National Family Summit

Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram spoke at the 2024 DEA National Family Summit on Fentanyl, in Washington DC.

Financial sanctions can disrupt fentanyl flows to the United StatesRe

Read the original article on the Atlantic Council website.

Today, the Department of the Treasury sanctioned the leaders of La Linea, a violent Mexican drug cartel responsible for trafficking fentanyl and other drugs to the United States. The designations are just the latest example of how the US government is trying to grapple with the fentanyl epidemic, which has become one of the top national security threats to the United States. It is one of the leading causes of death among young and middle-aged Americans, having killed nearly 75,000 Americans in 2023.

Financial partnerships between Chinese money laundering organizations (CMLO) and Mexican cartels have made it more challenging for US law enforcement agencies to track the movements of drug money. Financial sanctions have so far proven an effective tool in reducing the growth in crypto-denominated fentanyl sales and should be used more frequently by the US government to tactically disrupt the trade of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.

Article continues on the Atlantic Council website.

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Buyer Beware: Bad Actors Exploit De Minimis Shipments

What the American public needs to know and how CBP is tackling the problem

Read the full article on the US Customs and Border Protection website.

Contrary to popular belief, good things do not always come in small packages. In fiscal year 2023, 85% of the shipments U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized for health and safety violations were small packages. The packages contained dangerous materials that could cause serious harm to American consumers and the U.S. economy. Propelled by online shopping, duty-free de minimis shipments—packages with an aggregate value of $800 or less—are skyrocketing and putting consumers at risk.

Currently, de minimis shipments account for 92% of all cargo entering the U.S. and that figure is growing in epic proportions. CBP processes approximately 4 million de minimis shipments a day, up from 2.8 million last year. Bad actors are exploiting this explosion in volume to traffic counterfeits, dangerous narcotics, and other illicit goods including precursor chemicals and materials such as pill presses and die molds used to manufacture fentanyl and other synthetic drugs that are killing Americans.

The majority of the more than 1 billion de minimis shipments CBP processed last year were in the air environment. Roughly 800 million, or 88%, of these shipments arrived through international mail; express courier services such as UPS, DHL, and FedEx; or were transported as cargo on commercial airline flights. At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York where 25% of all de minimis shipments are processed, the volume is staggering. “On any given day, we could receive and process 750,000 to a million de minimis shipments,” said Andrew Renna, Assistant Port Director for Cargo Operations at JFK Airport. Along with four express courier facilities, the airport houses the country’s largest by volume international mail facility where 60% of international mail arrives in the U.S. “We have limited resources,” said Renna. “We only have X number of staff. There is no physical way if I doubled or even tripled my staffing that I could look at a significant percentage of that. So due to the volume, it’s a very exploitable mode of entry into the U.S.”

De minimis shipments account for 92% of all cargo entering the U.S. Above, CBP officers are offloading de minimis shipments from a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. Photo by Ya-Huei Laura Lee

“De minimis,” a Latin expression that means trivial or so minor that something can be disregarded, is anything but in the trade realm. Bad actors employ a number of techniques to smuggle items or evade paying duties. Undervaluation of goods, misclassification of merchandise, inaccurate or vague cargo descriptions, and describing products as something innocuous when, in fact, they’re harmful are just a few of the tactics.

“We’ve encountered shipments that have been declared as footwear and jackets, but found smuggled beef, pork, and poultry animal products instead,” said Renna. “The products are prohibited in the United States because of the risk of foreign animal disease. Should an animal disease outbreak occur in the United States, it could have significant impact on the U.S. economy and the world economy. Any disruption to the food supply chain causes economic harm,” said Renna. “Just this year so far at JFK, we have seized over 33,000 pounds of prohibited animal products in the de minimis environment. Many of the countries that we’ve seized this from are affected by African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease, and avian influenza or bird flu. The beef, pork, and poultry industries are collectively worth over $200 billion annually in the U.S. and they support millions of jobs. So in just this one area, where de minimis is being exploited, it’s harmful to our domestic agriculture supply.”

Article continues on the US Border Protection website.

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Two indicted for three overdose deaths in Chowan County

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

Published: Sep. 20, 2024 at 11:41 AM EDT|Updated: Sep. 20, 2024 at 3:24 PM EDT

EDENTON, N.C. (WITN) – Two people have been indicted for three overdose deaths that happened in one Eastern Carolina County.

The SBI announced this morning the arrests of Steven Patrick, Jr. and Ja’Nyryah White, both of Edenton.

The three deaths happened last December, along with several other non-fatal ODs, within 15 days of each other.

The victims were 66-year-old Janice Chilcutt, 61-year-old Ronald Adderly, and 24-year-old April Tapia.

Chilcutt and Adderly died in Edenton, while Tapia’s death was in the county.

A Chowan County grand jury indicted Patrick on two counts of death by distribution for the Edenton deaths, while White was charged with one count of death by distribution for the Chowan County death.

The SBI was brought in to investigate the deaths at the request of the Edenton Police Department and the Chowan County Sheriff’s Office.

Patrick was given a $500,000 secured bond, and White’s bond was $250,000 secured. Both suspects remain in jail.

Use of opioid overdose antidote by laypersons rose 43% from 2020 to 2022, study finds

CNN —

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%.