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Billboard Campaign: Who Dies Next? fentvic.org hosts PSA Campaign

FIGHT FENTANYL to SAVE LIVES Digital Billboard Campaign

In Gaston, Mecklenburg, and Union Counties, NC
1/7—1/21/2024

CONTACT

Barb Walsh, Executive Director, 919-614-3830, barb@fentvic.org
Fentanyl Victims Network of NC (fentvic), 501(c)(3) EIN 88-3921380 www.fentvic.org
Contact Barb to schedule interviews with local fentanyl victim families

4 LOCATIONS: Gaston, Mecklenburg and Union County, NC (see below)
Gastonia, Gaston County: I-85 just north of Cox Road exit facing South
South Charlotte, Mecklenburg County: 1) I-77 Southbound, near Westinghouse Blvd 2) I-77 Northbound, north of I-485 interchange, 3/10 mile Arrowood Rd
Monroe, Union County: US-74 Walkup Avenue, faces east

DETAILS

1/7@12am -1/21/24@11:59pm. Runs 24/7, digital and illuminated.
Hosted by fentvic.org, NC fentanyl victim families and corporate good citizen Adams Outdoor (Julie Belnap, Account Executive)
Features 15 NC fentanyl fatality victims killed by fentanyl 15 different ways.
1/20/24 Family Summit on Fentanyl Fatalities: Public Safety, Awareness & Justice.
10:30-3:30. Private Event for NC Fentanyl Victim Families & Press who pre-register. Separate press release to be issued.

PURPOSE:

SAVE LIVES!
Spark public safety conversations within communities and amongst families about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills (Adderall, Xanax, Percocet)
7 out of 10 ‘street’ counterfeit pills contain lethal dose of fentanyl additives (DEA 2023)
Raise awareness about 16,228 NC fentanyl fatalities, 2013-September 2023 (NC OCME)
1,615 fentanyl fatalities combined occurred in Gaston (311), Mecklenburg (1,118) and Union (186) 2013-Sept 2023 (source: NC State Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Death Certificate Data)
Links to fentanyl fatality data on fentvic.org website:

ABOUT

Fentvic is a charitable nonprofit located in Wake County NC. EIN #88-3921380
- Fentvic is a action oriented grassroots nonprofit that promotes Public Safety, Education, Justice, Advocacy, and Support of NC fentanyl victim families in all 100 NC Counties

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Fentanyl super labs in Canada pose new threat for U.S. opioid epidemic

Police discovered a fentanyl lab in April near Vancouver. The spread of such labs in Canada could undermine U.S. enforcement efforts and worsen the opioid crisis in both nations. (Courtesy Vancouver Police Department)

At a rural property an hour outside Vancouver in October, Canadian police found 2.5 million doses of fentanyl and 528 gallons of chemicals in a shipping container and a storage unit. Six months earlier, they raided a home in a cookie-cutter Vancouver subdivision packed with barrels of fentanyl-making chemicals, glassware and lab equipment.

Thousands of miles away outside Toronto, police in August found what is believed to be the largest fentanyl lab so far in Canada — hidden at a property 30 miles from the U.S. border crossing at Niagara Falls, N.Y.

U.S. authorities say they have little indication that Canadian-made fentanyl is being smuggled south in significant quantities. But at a time when record numbers of people are dying from overdoses in the United States, the spread of clandestine fentanyl labs in Canada has the potential to undermine U.S. enforcement efforts and worsen the opioid epidemic in both nations.

Investigators in Canada say the labs are producing fentanyl for domestic users and for export to Australia, New Zealand and, they assume, the United States.

“It’d be hard to believe it’s not occurring,” said Philip Heard, commander of the organized crime unit for police in Vancouver, a city hard-hit by fentanyl overdose deaths. “Most police leaders I’ve spoken to believe our production outstrips what our domestic demand is.”

The Canadian labs are a curveball for U.S. authorities whose efforts to combat fentanyl are focused on the southern border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has installed about $800 million worth of powerful scanning and detection equipment at land border crossings since 2019. Nearly all that technology has been deployed along the U.S. southern border, where CBP confiscated nearly 27,000 pounds of fentanyl during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the most ever.

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%.

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.”

They Were Go-To Dealers for College Students. Now They’re Headed to Prison.

A trial in federal court last week stemming from the overdose of a 23-year-old Raleigh man exposed the inner workings of a drug-dealing duo and their college-student clients.

The weekend of March 4, 2023, was a big one in the Triangle.

Big for thousands of students and alums because longtime basketball rivals Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were facing off. Big for crowded restaurants and bars that had the Saturday night game in UNC’s Dean Dome on their wide-screen TVs.

And big for Cye Frasier and his girlfriend, Carlisa Allen, who expected to bring in $10,000 in drug sales that weekend from their primary customer base: college students.

That weekend was the first time Josh Zinner, a former UNC-Wilmington student from Raleigh, purchased directly from Frasier and Allen, according to testimony last week in federal court. His roommate, a former UNC-Chapel Hill student and Phi Gamma Delta member, referred him to Frasier.

A double-edged sword: North Carolina expands the fight against fentanyl

Changes to a North Carolina law make it easier to prosecute people who distribute drugs, including fentanyl, if the drug user dies

Overview:

Carolina Public Press interviewed six parents of children who died and the partner of a man who did as well. Fentanyl, a powerful narcotic painkiller, was involved in each death. Often, those close to the victims reported, prosecutors declined to bring charges for death by distribution, saying the evidence was not strong enough.

Under a state law that takes effect next month, anyone who provides certain drugs to a person who dies after taking them may be prosecuted for second-degree murder — whether they received money for the drugs or shared them freely.

“Death by distribution” first became a crime in North Carolina in 2019. Originally, the law applied only to people who got paid for drugs that later proved fatal. In September, legislators expanded the law’s reach to include anyone who provides certain drugs, including fentanyl, when those drugs result in an overdose death.

Carolina Public Press interviewed six parents of children who died and the partner of a man who died as well. Fentanyl, a powerful narcotic painkiller, was involved in each death. Most of the families reported that prosecutors declined to bring charges for death by distribution, saying that the evidence was not strong enough.

The family members, as well as people who study drug use or work to combat it, are divided over whether the law’s approach is good or bad. Those in favor described death by distribution charges as essential to bring justice in fentanyl death cases. Critics argued that the strategy could unjustly criminalize and disproportionately affect substance users and people of color.

NCDHHS Counterfeit Pills Flyer

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has published a flyer to help North Carolina residents identify and understand the risks associated with counterfeit pills.

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Drug dealer sentenced for deadly overdose in Union County

Trenton Latres Butler, 27, convicted of second-degree murder

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — A “self-admitted drug dealer” will spend two decades in prison after his role in a deadly overdose that happened last March in Union County.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Trenton Latres Butler was convicted of second-degree murder, trafficking in opium/heroin, and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon on Tuesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, Butler sold fentanyl pills to 26-year-old Javier Ramirez-Sanchez in March of 2022. Ramirez-Sanchez died after taking the dose.

Investigators also said that Butler “repeatedly sold pressed fentanyl pills” and a gun to a confidential informant. Authorities searched Butler’s home and found more than 800 pressed fentanyl pills, Tramadol pills, Oxycodone pills, marijuana, and several guns.

On Tuesday, Butler was sentenced to serve between 225 and 282 months in prison and pay a $500,000 fine, according to the sheriff’s office.

Union County District Attorney Trey Robison said his office “will continue to aggressively prosecute fentanyl dealers who are poisoning our community.”

Read the full article on the Opera News website.

After Raleigh man’s overdose, dealer convicted of selling fentanyl-laced drugs

A Durham woman charged with selling drugs containing fentanyl that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old Raleigh man was convicted in federal court Friday.

Carlisa Allen, 46, was convicted on multiple cocaine-related drug charges, including conspiring to distribute a substance containing fentanyl resulting in death and possessing a firearm to further a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina said in a news release.

Allen’s drug trafficking conspiracy resulted in the cocaine and fentanyl overdose death of Joshua Skip Zinner on March 10, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

She was convicted after a four-day trial and could face 25 years to life in prison when sentenced on Feb. 13 next year.