Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina
Stronger Together! Grassroots campaign against illicit fentanyl in NC IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity EIN: 88-3921380
Bloomberg has posted an article which has a detailed analysis of the increase of fentanyl related deaths over the past decade. The article contains a number of dynamic graphics and should be viewed on the Bloomberg web site. The graphic above is just one of the many graphics included in the article.
Drug maker Emergent BioSolutions is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell Narcan over the counter, without need for a prescription.
The medication, an easy-to-use nasal spray version of the drug naloxone, has a strong track record reversing deadly opioid overdoses, which have soared in recent years largely because of the spread of fentanyl.
Read the full article on the NPR web site.
The summer before 14-year-old Alexander Neville would have entered high school, he sat both of his parents down at the kitchen table in their Aliso Viejo home and told them he’d been taking Oxycontin pills he bought on Snapchat.
He had self-medicated with pot in the past, but this was different.
“It has a hold on me, and I don’t know why,” he told them in 2020.
Alexander’s mother, Amy Neville, said they called a treatment program the next day and were waiting to hear back on rehab facilities. Alexander got a haircut, went to lunch with his dad and said goodnight to his parents before going up to his bedroom at the end of the day.
Read the full article on the LA Times web site.
Lillianna Alfaro was a recent high school graduate raising a toddler and considering joining the Army when she and a friend bought what they thought was the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in December 2020.
The pills were fake and contained fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin. It killed them both.
“Two years ago, I knew nothing about this,” said Holly Groelle, the mother of 19-year-old Alfaro, who lived in Appleton, Wisconsin. “I felt bad because it was something I could not have warned her about, because I didn’t know.”
Read the full article on the AP web site.
Drug counterfeiters can acquire a pill press and a counterfeit pill mold to churn out counterfeit medications for less than $500. Unfortunately, “garage manufacturers” are not careful about manufacturing controls, and their products often contain fatal doses of fentanyl or other drugs. Since 2015, bootleg prescription drugs made with machines like these have killed unsuspecting Americans in 37 states.
The Partnership for Safe Medicines has more information about Pill Presses on their web site.
Following the recent seizure of about five pounds of fentanyl and the ongoing problem of local overdoses, drugs in Onslow County continue to be a major concern.
Onslow County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Colonel Chris Thomas said fentanyl results in the overwhelming majority of overdoses in Onslow County, adding the problem is rarely heroin anymore. Last week, Thomas said the county had three overdoses but was able to revive all three of them with Narcan.
One of the biggest current problems, Thomas added, is that fentanyl is now being pressed into pill form as a way of concealment.
He said the local drug enforcement unit even seized a pill press in Jacksonville a few months ago that was being used for that very reason. Thankfully, Thomas said, the county has not yet seen fentanyl in the form of candy, a growing problem throughout the nation.
Read the full article on the JDNews.com web site.
On October 13, 2022 the Social Media Victims Law Center and C.A. Goldberg, PLLC filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Snap, Inc. on behalf of the families of Alexander Neville, Daniel Puerta, Jeff Johnston, Jr., Dylan Kai Sarantos, Devin Norring, Jack McCarthy, Alexandra Capelouto, and Daniel (Elijah) Figueroa. These teenagers and young adults are eight among hundreds who have died after taking pills purchased from drug dealers operating on Snapchat.
Also included in the suit are the parents of a 16-year-old who survived fentanyl pill poisoning and continues to use the app.
More details can be found on the Parternership for Safe Medicines web site.
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — A man was arrested in connection with an opioid overdose in May.
Walter Wrenn of Efland was arrested on a charge of felony death by distribution on Friday.
Wrenn, 36, was already incarcerated in the Orange County Jail for unrelated charges. Wrenn is being held under a $100,000 secured bond.
Read the full story on the WRAL 5 web site.
(The Center Square) – As a result of law enforcement operations from May through September of this year, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and law enforcement partners confiscated 36 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill 36 million Americans.
As part of the DEA’s One Pill Can Kill initiative, DEA agents and law enforcement partners in multiple states seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Their operations took place between May 23 and Sept. 8, 2022. The operations saved the lives of at least 36 million people who might otherwise have been subjected to the lethal doses, the DEA estimates. Also during the operation, law enforcement officers confiscated 338 weapons, including rifles, shotguns, pistols, and hand grenades.
Of the 390 cases investigated during this period, 51 cases were linked to overdose poisonings; 35 cases directly linked to one or both of the primary Mexican cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl in the United States: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Read the full article on The Center Square web site.
The lives of thousands of Onslow County residents have now been saved with the seizure of about five pounds of fentanyl.
The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call for a domestic-related incident at Eider Loop Road in Jacksonville on Sept. 20, according to a recent news release. Upon executing a search warrant, investigators located 2.5 kilos of fentanyl, over 40 pounds of marijuana, two rifles, three handguns and about $10,000.
OCSO Chief Deputy Colonel Chris Thomas said in an email that the amount of fentanyl seized could have easily killed thousands of Onslow County residents, though it’s hard to estimate as it depends on the dosage an individual would use and how it is cut. He added a dosage unit is about .01 grams and a kilogram has 1,000 grams.
Read the full article on the Jacksonville Daily News web site or on Yahoo!