Images

The politicization of the fentanyl crisis

The country’s fentanyl crisis has become a potent political weapon, reflecting its deep and emotional impact on millions of Americans.

Why it matters: The opioid epidemic was once a rare topic that brought Republicans and Democrats together. But even as overdose deaths continue to climb, the discourse around fentanyl has become more politicized and, at times, less aligned with reality — especially when Republicans talk about its connection to the U.S.-Mexico border.

  • “When it gets to the front page, sometimes the incentives can be to use it more as a partisan weapon,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral services at Stanford.
  • But also, “there is a human part. Everyone’s upset. We have all these dead bodies. People are burying their children and communities are getting destroyed.”

Read the full article on the Axios website.

Download Article PDF

App State student promotes Narcan accessibility

“Naloxone saves lives!” senior Zoe Lebkuecher typed on each flyer with a Spanish translation under each line along with where students and anyone on campus can find Narcan. 

Lebkuecher’s attendance at a welcome event she found on Engage turned into what is now a passion, spreading Narcan awareness.

Lebkuecher transferred to App State last school year and attended an event hosted by the  Collegiate Recovery Community. Lebkeucher said she has been working with the group ever since because of the community she found.

The university’s Collegiate Recovery Community helps students who are in recovery or wish to be in recovery and provides resources for those who want to support others throughout their recovery journey. The organization holds weekly recovery and community meetings.

Lebkuecher started to find ways to get involved with the Collegiate Recovery Community, which works hand-in-hand with Wellness & Prevention Services on campus.

Read the full article on the App State website.

NC Newsline interview with Barb Walsh

In the list of horrors that a parent might ever experience, losing one’s child because she unknowingly grabbed and drank a bottle of water laced with fentanyl has to be among the worst imaginable. And tragically, that’s what happened to a North Carolina woman named Barb Walsh in 2021 when her daughter Sophia died almost instantly from fentanyl poisoning.

Read the full story and listen to the interview on the NC Newsline website.

Download Article PDF

Families grieving fentanyl deaths to rally in support of new laws

sdfasdf

The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will rally at the N.C. State Capitol Building later this month, pushing for stronger penalties for illegal distribution of the synthetic opioid and more funding for early intervention, Naloxone and processing toxicology reports. They are also asking state lawmakers for opioid overdoses to be investigated as homicides.

As NC Newsline has reported, North Carolina has been hard hit by fentanyl, an epidemic within the larger opioid epidemic. Some 13,671 North Carolinians have been killed by fentanyl in the last nine years, according to data from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner — an average of eight people per day.

Even those numbers likely do not take in the full scope of the problem, medical experts say.

In North Carolina, death certificates don’t have a specific code for fentanyl’s involvement in a drug overdose. There is a code – T40.4 — for “other synthetic narcotic overdose.” The Epidemiology, Surveillance and Informatics unit of the N.C. Division of Public Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch notes that most of these cases are “due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogues,” but can also include prescription fentanyl and other, less potent synthetic narcotics like Tramadol.

An analysis of statistics from the state medical examiner’s office found overdose deaths with the T40.4 code rose from 442 in 2016 (the first year for which the office had such statistics) to 3,163 in 2021 — an increase of 616%.

As of April, according to OCME data, there were 1,116 fentanyl-positive overdose deaths in the state so far this year.

Read the full article on NCNewsline.com.

Download Article PDF

Fentanyl deaths impact Rutherford County families

This article appeared in the July 17 print edition of the Rutherford Courier. The text from the article was extracted from a scan of the print article to make it easier to read.

By Scott Carpenter

Bill’s CREEK — Fentanyl is potent opioid drug, considered 50 times more powerful than heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were over 107,00 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2022. and 2/3 were fentanyl related.

Fentanyl affects every corner of the United States including Rutherford County. A nonprofit group called Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is working to raise awareness of fentanyl in order to prevent more people deaths. Maria Deckert is spearheading the effort in Rutherford County. The local organization is aligned with other similar groups across North Carolina.

Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is hosting meeting on Sunday, August 6, from 2-4 p.m. at Bill’s Creek Community Center, 1978 Club House Road, Lake Lure.  This meeting is for families and friends of those who have died from fentanyl overdoses.  And it is for anyone with an interest in learning more about the fentanyl problem.  Deckert said Monday. “We want to Come together, and share our stories.  We want to help saves by informing the public about the dangers of fentanyl.”

For Deckert who lives in Rutherford County, this is personal.  Her son, Robert Deckert, was 33 years old when he died in Florida just over four years ago.  He had struggled with drug abuse for several years but was going through rehabilitation.

“I don’t want to see others die like he did.  I don’t want other families to go through the grief that we are going through,” Deckert said. 

Since 2013. more than 13,600 in North Carolina have been killed by fentanyl.  Statistics indicate there been 84 fentanyl related deaths in Rutherford County over the past nine years.

“This means there are 84 families that are permanently damaged by fentanyl,” Deckert said.

For the same period 57 fentanyl deaths in Cleveland County and 50 fentanyl deaths in McDowell County.

Eckert says fentanyl has killed not only active drug users but people who have accidentally come into contact with the drug.

“Fentanyl does not discriminate,” she said.  “Fentanyl kills babies, toddlers, middle schoolers and high schoolers, college students young adults.”

In order to better combat the fentanyl problem, Eckert says more people need to be made aware of it.

“We want to prevent more fentanyl deaths,” she said.

For more information about the Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl meeting, call 828-291-7951

You can find the original article on the Rutherford Courier website however it requires a subscription to access it.

Teens in rehab; CMS wrestler dead. Parents say fentanyl has breached school.

A boyish light had just seeped back into Laird Ramirez’ eyes.

The end of wrestling season brought more free time. With it, he mixed music, cracked jokes and relaxed. He loved life, and he loved his family. He was 17 and acting like it.

His smile was big, and his heart was beating.

The Hough High School rising junior wore well the unique independence that comes with being a teenager, his mom said.

But on July 1, he needed his parents one last time.

Authorities called Gwyneth Brown and Chris Ramirez to the two-story home in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.

They needed to identify his body — robbed of light and color — at a home in Cornelius, paramedics told them.

The night before he’d come and gone from the home, a friend’s house, a few times. At around 3 a.m., he’d returned for good and was chatting with friends when he abruptly beelined for a bed. He said didn’t feel good, his friends told his parents.

Twelve hours later, friends found him dead.

A fatal dose of fentanyl — from a pill he thought was a Percocet — killed him, his mom says.

Nine days later, police arrested and charged 21-year-old Ehsanullah “Sean” Ayaar with death by distribution, according to the Cornelius Police Department. He’s accused of supplying the drug that killed a juvenile, police said previously. A police statement indicates the death was in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.

Read the full article on the Charlotte Observer website.

Download Article PDF

Translate »