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Deputies with sheriff’s office now serving as School Resource Officers in Beaufort County

Read the original article on the WNCT 9 On Your Side website.

BEAUFORT COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) — Students in Beaufort County Schools were welcomed back this week with help from the sheriff’s office.

Deputies served as School Resource Officers throughout schools in the district. They’re replacing a third party police force used for the past three years.

There are 13 deputies, meaning each school in the district gets one. On the first day of school, SROs were seen greeting students at car rider lines, giving them high fives and tying their shoes in the hallways.

Having the local sheriff’s office provide school security has been a work in progress since winter.

“To be honest, there’s nothing better than your local sheriff’s department being able to provide school resource officers into our schools each and every day,” Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman said. “And through that, you’ll see them out at our athletic contests, extracurricular activities and so let’s celebrate them as they celebrate and protect our students and staff. Perfect.”

In order to become a SRO, a 40-hour SRO certification programs has to be completed. During that training, school security is practiced in addition to courses on ethics and leadership.

Each SRO is a sworn police officer and is armed. They’ll be making sure buildings are secure, alarm systems are working, doors are not propped and students and staff feel safe.

Man arrested for selling drugs linked to 2023 overdose in Carrboro

Read the original article on the WRAL TV5 News website.

Jerimiah Hargrove, 20, of Selma, is charged with death by distribution and selling a Schedule II controlled substance.

Carrboro police arrested a man Wednesday and charged him in connection with another man’s overdose death.

Jerimiah Hargrove, 20, of Selma, is charged with death by distribution and selling a Schedule II controlled substance.

Carrboro police said Hargrove sold a controlled substance to Serguei Ndinga Momo, who died of an overdose on June 27, 2023, at the age of 21.

Police said the substance was the cause of Momo’s death.

Authorities are holding Hargrove at the Wayne County Jail on an $80,000 bond.

Police urged people to call 911 if someone is overdosing.

North Carolina’s Good Samaritan Law allows for people to report an overdose – their own or someone else’s – without fear of criminal prosecution.

‘Secret fentanyl lab’ found in Fayetteville home sends armed trafficker to prison

Read the original article on the CBS 17 News website.

A high-capacity pill press sits on a washing machine in a Fayetteville home. (Courtesy USDOJ)

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — What began as a Fayetteville police investigation ended in federal charges, a 27-year prison sentence, and more than six pounds of fentanyl taken out of circulation.

Quavion Maurice Pickett, 30, became the focus of an investigation after a “confidential informant” tipped off Fayetteville police in April 2022 to his role involvement in distributing drugs, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. on Wednesday.

Pickett, a.k.a. “Q,” is a resident of Rock Hill, S.C., and has a residence in Fayetteville where police began surveilling after the tip. After observing what appeared to be multiple drug transactions, a search warrant was issued.

While in the home, officers discovered the laundry room was being used as a “secret fentanyl lab”, the USDOJ release said. The makeshift lab was described as being used as a counterfeit pill-making operation. The fentanyl pills seized were pressed with markings of “A215”, which was to give the appearance of being 30-milligram doses of oxycodone hydrochloride, Easley said.

Wake County to take fight against opioid addiction and overdoses to the streets

Read the original article on the News & Observer website (may be behind a pay wall).

Wake County will work with 13 community organizations specializing in naloxone distribution, recovery support, housing services and more to combat the effects of the opioid epidemic. Durham County Sheriff’s Dept.

Lindsey Humphreys has been recovering from opioid addiction for the last five years, she said.

She’s known people in Wake County who have died from opioids because they didn’t have access to naloxone, a life-saving drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.

“I decided to be part of the solution and just started to distribute this,” she said. “I have been doing it for the last couple of years in the memory of some of my friends who passed.”

Humphreys is the executive director of Illuminate NC, an organization that helps distribute naloxone in Wake and Vance counties. Illuminate distributes about 300 naloxone units a month, she said.

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‘She’ll never say yes to the dress’ | Greensboro grandma warns against fentanyl dangers

A Greensboro grandmother is warning against the dangers of fentanyl in light of National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day.

Read the original article on the WFMY TV2 News website.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Pictures of a Greensboro lady who died from a fentanyl overdose are being seen from The Gate City to The Big Apple, due to efforts from her grandmother.

When traveling along Lawndale Dr. Greensboro drivers may notice the face of Ashley Whaby. The shot is only up for a couple of seconds, but that is everything drivers need to get the point.

“She’ll never say yes to the dress. Abby 16 she’ll never graduate high school. Christian left a little boy behind,” said Whaby’s grandmother, Debbie Peeden.

Forever 23, October marks three years since Whaby’s death. Aside from memories, pictures are all that’s left. Wednesday those images are being seen all across the east coast.

“Today in Time Square in New York City Facing Fentanyl is doing a huge event. They’re taking over Time Square. They’ll be pictures and billboards of all the victims across the country who have died from fentanyl poisoning,” Peeden continued, “I’m not going to have her death be in vain, I loved her and raised her like a daughter. She called me Nana, Nana Banana.”

National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day warns people of the drug’s dangers.

“She thought she was getting cocaine, but when we got the toxicology report she had enough fentanyl in her system to kill eight people. She didn’t stand a chance,” said Peeden.

Since Ashley’s death, her grandmother’s mission has changed. She fights to make sure young people have the chance Whaby didn’t.

“Apps like Snapchat make it so simple for a child to go online and get what they think is an adderall or a xanax or a percocet really what they’re going to get is a fentanyl pill that can kill them,” Peeden warned.

Peeden’s advises parents to talk to their kids and know what they are doing online.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it can’t happen to your child because it can, and it does,” exclaimed Peeden.

Mom who lost son to fentanyl poisoning urges I-SS Board to put Naloxone in district schoolsMom who lost son to fentanyl

Read the original article on the Iredell Free News website.

**Pictured are Robby Lemons and Stefanie Duck, holding up a picture of her son Timothy “TJ” Cothron Jr., who died in February 2022 from fentanyl poisoning.**

Stefanie Duck will always remember her son, Timothy “TJ” Cothron Jr., as hard working, kind and compassionate.

“He never met a stranger. He was always willing to help anyone who asked and brought light to everyone’s world he entered,” she said.

In February of 2022, about eight months after graduating from South Iredell High School, TJ died from fentanyl poisoning. He was 18.

His mother hopes that by sharing his story she can help prevent other young people from accidentally overdosing.

Fentvic Meetup #14 Hickory, Catawba County & Adjacent NC Counties

FENTANYL VICTIMS’ FAMILIES ORGANIZE TO FIGHT ILLICIT FENTANYL IN NC!

Fentvic Meetup #14 (open to the public)
Hickory, Catawba County & Adjacent NC Counties
Saturday, August 24, 2024, 2:00-4:00 pm

Date	Saturday, August 24, 2024, 2:00-4:00 pm
Location	Grace Church Downtown Campus 26 2^nd Street NW Hickory 28601

Download Press Release PDF

Fentvic Meetup #13 Statesville, Iredell County & Adjacent NC Counties

FENTANYL VICTIMS’ FAMILIES ORGANIZE TO FIGHT ILLICIT FENTANYL IN NC!

Fentvic Meetup #13 (open to the public)
Statesville, Iredell County & Adjacent NC Counties
Saturday, July 27, 2024, 2:00-4:00 pm

Date	Saturday, July 27, 2024, 2:00-4:00 pm
Location	Bristol Road Community Center 1605 Bristol Road Statesville, NC 28677

Download Press Release PDF

The Fentanyl Death Crisis in America

Medication for reversing overdose is life-saving—if used quickly and correctly.

KEY POINTS

Fentanyl is a major threat causing overdose deaths in the United States.
Young people are unknowingly taking fentanyl and dying.
Fentanyl smoking is contributing to overdose and speedballing deaths.
Government and private agencies are cracking down on illegal fentanyl, but it’s an uphill fight.

“It is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced.” says Anne Milgram, Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), referring to the threat of fentanyl in the United States. She should know.

We still have record deaths, and that’s after the DEA seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder so far in 2024 . The fentanyl seizures represent more than 157.6 million deadly doses; 70% of the counterfeit pills contain a lethal dose of fentanyl. Sometimes, the drug is smoked and as with intravenous injection, speeds access to the brain, further endangering users.

The best new prevention approach, the “One Pill Can Kill” initiative led by the DEA, is amplified by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and other volunteers educating the public and seeking to prevent flooding of the U.S. with fentanyl and fentanyl-laced fake pills resembling Xanax, Oxycontin, Adderall, Vicodin and other popular prescription medications—but with a deadly twist. The counterfeit pills, more often than not, contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.

“CADCA and its 7,000 coalition members across the nation have worked tirelessly to address the issue of fentanyl-laced fake pills that are poisoning our nation’s youth by planning and implementing comprehensive, data-driven strategies, with multiple public and private partners to address community conditions causing this problem,” said CADCA’s president and CEO, retired Army general Barrye L. Price.

Pill press molds used to produce illicit fentanyl targeted in legislation in Congress

by Lia Chien, NC Newsline
May 30, 2024

WASHINGTON – Bipartisan legislation pushed in both chambers of Congress aims to stop illegal fentanyl production and trafficking by focusing on the machinery used to manufacture pills.

The Criminalizing Abused Substance Templates, or CAST, Act would redefine the criminal penalty for producing counterfeit drugs using a pill press. Counterfeiting drugs is already illegal as outlined in the Controlled Substances Act but no penalty is included in the law.

Under CAST, it would be illegal to possess a pill press mold with the intent to produce schedule I or II drugs, a crime punishable for up to 20 years.

CAST was introduced in the House by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, and David Kustoff, a Tennessee Republican, in October 2019 and it was reintroduced in March 2023.

The bill got a boost earlier this month when Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced it in the upper chamber.

Overdoses and deaths

The bill particularly targets the production and distribution of opioids, especially fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid with an incredibly high potency, about 100 times more than morphine. As a result, it’s often mixed into other drugs to increase strength, sometimes in lethal doses.

Synthetic opioids are the main drivers of opioid overdoses. Between 2020 and 2021, deaths involving synthetic opioids like illegally made fentanyl rose by 55%, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Opioid-related and other drug poisoning deaths per 100,000 people are highest in West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Lawmakers attribute this rise in fentanyl-related deaths to the counterfeit market and drug trafficking.

“The overdose crisis and the rising scourge of fentanyl are undoubtedly made worse by the rise in use of illicit pill presses to manufacture counterfeit drugs,” Spanberger said in a statement about her legislation.

“By stepping up penalties for narcotics traffickers who use illicit pill presses to manufacture drugs, our bipartisan legislation would empower our law enforcement officers to crack down on these criminals and prevent dangerous substances — such as fentanyl — from being pressed into illicit pills and sold on our streets.”

Much of the illicit fentanyl sold in the U.S. contains at least a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, 2 mg. A DEA study found that 42% of tested pills contained this amount or more, some as much as 5.1 mg.

Lawmakers said they want to ensure law enforcement officials have the necessary tools to stop the production and sale of these drugs.

“Strengthening penalties for the criminals creating these counterfeit drugs can help get them off the market,” said Hassan in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation will help ensure that law enforcement officials have the tools that they need to crack down on criminals making counterfeit drugs.”

According to the DEA, because lethal doses of fentanyl are often mixed in with other drugs, it can be “possible for someone to take a pill without knowing it contains fentanyl.” Cassidy said the CAST Act could prevent these deaths.

“No one should have to worry if their medicines are counterfeit or laced with fentanyl,” he said.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.