Category: State News
Rutherford County man found guilty for mailing drugs that killed Iowa vicitm
RUTHERFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WSPA) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced that a man was found guilty after mailing heroin and fentanyl that killed a man in Dubuque, Iowa.
According to evidence in the trial, James Adam Earwood, 38, of Lake Lure, North Carolina mailed a package of heroin and fentanyl to another person on November 18, 2021. Officials said that Earwood was living in North Carolina at the time and the victim was living in Dubuque, Iowa.
The victim used heroin and fentanyl and overdosed in the parking lot of a local business in Dubuque and survived. According to officials, one month later the victim received another package of heroin and fentanyl in the mail from Earwood on December 17, 2021. The victim used the heroin and fentanyl and died shortly after. He was found dead by hotel staff in a hotel in Dubuque, Iowa.
Evidence revealed that Earwood was using social media platforms on the dark web to arrange transactions of heroin and fentanyl with other people. Investigators tracked down at least one other package of heroin and fentanyl that Earwood had sent.
Earwood is being held by the United States Marshals until he can be sentenced. A sentencing date has not been set yet.
Read the full story on the WSPA TV7 website.
Barbara Walsh Speaks to Wake County School Board on Naloxone in Schools
Two arrested after nearly 120 pounds of fentanyl seized in traffic stop, Iredell County Sheriff’s Office says
Officials seized enough of the drug to kill every person in North Carolina more than two times over.
IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Two people are in jail after the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office seized almost 120 pounds of suspected fentanyl mixed with cocaine during a traffic stop on Sunday.
The two people, one from Mexico and the other from New Mexico were traveling on I-77 from Charlotte to Philadelphia in a tractor-trailer when they were stopped by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office Interstate Criminal Enforcement Team (ICE) for a traffic violation.
During the traffic stop, ICSO K-9 Groot indicated the presence of narcotics in the tractor-trailer. After searching the vehicle, deputies located 120 lbs of suspected fentanyl mixed with cocaine, which has a street value of $3.75 million.
Deputies said that they seized enough of the drug to kill every person in the entire state of North Carolina – two and a half times over.
Read the full article and watch the video on the WCNC website.
Two new North Carolina laws change fentanyl fines, concealed carry rules
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Dozens of new laws are now in effect in North Carolina as of Dec 1.
Some deal with stricter fines for drug traffickers, while others deal with election law. WECT News took a closer look at two of them.
Senate Bill 41
Part of Senate Bill 41, introduced by State Senator Danny Britt Jr., is now in effect in North Carolina. The part of the law now in effect allows concealed carry permit holders to bring firearms to places of worship that also have schools.
See WECT web site for remainder of their conent regarding Senate Bill 41.
Senate Bill 189
“An act to increase the fine imposed on persons convicted of trafficking in heroin, fentanyl, or carfentanil” will increase the fines for people convicted of drug trafficking who have between 4-14 grams of the substance on them.
The fine increase is from $50,000 to $500,000. That’s a 900% increase.
Barbara Walsh lost her daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning at just 24 years old. Sophia died after drinking fentanyl from a glass of water, but the family didn’t find that out until months after her death.
Walsh says she hopes the new law with an increased fine will be enough to curb traffickers from selling or distributing the lethal drug.
“I think that is a deterrent for people to think twice about trafficking fentanyl, and maybe it will save somebody’s life,” Walsh said.
While the new law can’t bring back her daughter, she hopes it could save others’ lives in the future.
“We’re paying it forward for unfortunately the eight people who die every day from fentanyl in North Carolina,” Walsh said.
The DEA reports that just one gram of fentanyl can kill 500 people.
Walsh founded the non-profit, Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, after her daughter’s death. She works with families across the state who have lost a loved one to fentanyl and encourages those who want support to join.
Copyright 2023 WECT. All rights reserved.
Overdoses were finally on the decline in NC. The pandemic reignited the crisis.
Fatal overdoses in North Carolina had finally started to decline.
After steadily rising for years, deaths dropped by 7% in 2018, despite the growing prevalence of fentanyl, an opioid even more potent and deadly than heroine.
The state had aggressively invested in fighting the opioid crisis — it expanded access to evidence-based treatment, sent Narcan to at-risk areas and reduced medical dispensing of opioids.
Low overdose numbers in 2019 seemed to confirm the efforts were paying off.
People in the NC Department of Health and Human Services started believing it was possible to meet a goal they had set back in 2016: to cut the expected overdoses in 2024 by 20%.
“There was a lot of hope in those two years before the pandemic,” said Mary Beth Cox, a substance use epidemiologist DHHS.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“Who knows where we would have been if the pandemic hadn’t happened?” Cox said.
INCREASED ISOLATION, DISAPPEARING TREATMENT AND SUPPORT GROUPS
Loneliness and social isolation became more common. It became harder to send Narcan out into the community. Support groups and treatment centers transitioned online.
“You can do group therapy on the phone or in video, but it’s still not true connection,” said Ellen Stroud, who directs addiction and management operations for the state’s opioid response. “And that’s really a huge part of recovery.”
Disturbing data began emerging.
In the first year of the pandemic, fatal overdoses in the state shot up by 40%. In 2021, deaths increased by an additional 22%.
Continue reading “Overdoses were finally on the decline in NC. The pandemic reignited the crisis.”Families hope new NC law could bring justice for fentanyl deaths
GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — There are a lot of families hurting in North Carolina.
The state has seen 16,000 killed from fentanyl this year through July alone, according to the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.
That’s 16,000 families missing a loved one because of a growing nationwide fentanyl epidemic. Tracy Sauderson-Ross wishes she would have been home back on Sept. 26, 2022, when her 16-year-old daughter, Abi, was dealing with leg pain and Abi’s boyfriend tried to help.
“He decided to call a buddy of his to get a Percocet,” described Saunderson-Ross. “She took half of the Percocet, it was a bar, and it was 36 nanograms of fentanyl, and she passed away in the middle of the night.”
Marshall Abbott was out with friends on June 30, 2022, the day before his 30th birthday. A friend he was with bought something. The family still doesn’t know what it was, but they know a loving father didn’t wake up.
“Marshall had 72 nanograms of fentanyl in his system,” said Elizabeth Abernathy. “He didn’t stand a chance. He was gone before he even crawled into the bed.”
Continue reading “Families hope new NC law could bring justice for fentanyl deaths”Woman charged with felony in North Carolina overdose death, officials say
HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C.
A North Carolina woman faces charges for the death of another person, but no weapon or violent act was involved.
The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that Heather Marie Maybin, 37, of Hendersonville, was charged Monday with felony death by distribution.
Officials said the charge is a result of an overdose death that happened on Feb. 7, but did not release the name of the victim.
“The months-long investigation revealed Maybin as the source of supply Fentanyl that resulted in the death of at least one individual,” officials said.
They said Maybin is being held at the Henderson County Detention Center on a $75,000.00 bond.
Statesville man charged in 2022 drug overdose death, sheriff says
A 26-year-old was taken to Iredell Memorial Hospital due to a drug overdose and later died, deputies said.
STATESVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) – A deadly 2022 fentanyl overdose in Iredell County has led to charges being filed more than a year later.
Deputies were called to Hickory Highway in Statesville on July 23, 2022, for a possible drug overdose, according to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.
A 26-year-old was taken to Iredell Memorial Hospital due to a drug overdose and later died, deputies said.
During the investigation, 26-year-old Dakoda Michael Drake, of Statesville, was identified as the person who provided fentanyl to the victim, according to the sheriff’s office.
“After months of waiting, the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office recently received the Toxicology Report indicating the victim’s cause of death was confirmed as a Fentanyl overdose,” a news release stated.
An arrest warrant was obtained for Drake and he was arrested on Nov. 24 for felony death by distribution, deputies said.
He was given a $350,000 secured bond on this charge.
Read the full article on the WBTV website.
How to get Narcan, the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, for free 24/7
It can save your life, and it’s free.
A vending machine stocked with free Narcan — a life-saving opioid reversal nasal spray — will now sit inside the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, available for use 24/7.
The installment, tucked next to a Coca-Cola vending machine in the Detention Center’s lobby, comes after a 20% increase in fentanyl overdoses reported by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Fentanyl — an opioid often laced in other drugs, like pain pills, or distributed on its own — is 100 times more potent than morphine, and even a small amount of it can be deadly.
As it becomes easily available — routinely popping up in the detention center, on streets and even in schools — Sheriff Garry McFadden hopes to make access to Narcan as easy as possible.
“We want to encourage all people, whether they personally use substances or not, to carry the life-saving drug,” wrote MCSO Public Information Officer Bradley Smith.
Naloxone, the fast-acting medicine in Narcan that reverses an opioid overdose, is considered safe to use even if drug use is suspected but later found to not be the case. Earlier this year, federal regulators took action to make 4 mg Narcan nasal spray available over-the-counter without a prescription for about $50.
In collaboration with Carolinas CARE Partnership Rx ACE (CCP), McFadden said offering the drug will be “a pivotal step in our efforts to combat the ongoing fentanyl crisis.”
Continue reading “How to get Narcan, the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, for free 24/7”