Read the full article and watch the video segment on the WRAL TV5 web site.
Lawmakers, families fight for harsher punishment to combat fentanyl crisis
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Senators move to increase punishments as fentanyl (overdoses) poisonings rise
Fentanyl And Fentanyl Pills Have Transformed The Drug Landscape Since 2015
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RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 40 families came together Saturday at the Public Safety and Justice Conference at NC State University.
Eight North Carolinians die each day from fentanyl poisoning, and over 13,376 died from fentanyl from 2013 to November 2022.
Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, lost her daughter 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning. Now she’s trying to connect others who’ve lost loved ones to fentanyl.
“Other people who lost a child to fentanyl, or loved one, they shouldn’t stand alone,” Walsh said. “I felt like we would all be stronger if we stood together.”
Read the article and watch the video on the WRAL Tv5 web site.
Fentanyl seized in Carolinas increased 15000% in two years, federal data shows
Last year in both North and South Carolina, federal officers seized 18.75 pounds of the synthetic opioid. That’s more than they located the previous two years combined.
At least 2,500 North Carolinians died from fentanyl overdoses last year, according to the latest state data out this month. The data is only through September of 2022 as the state’s Department of Health and Human Services is still processing information for last year so it is likely this number will climb even higher.
The synthetic drug is now a major focus for law enforcement agencies across the state as it continues devastating communities in and families.
Over the last five years, the number of people dying from overdoses increased significantly. Fatal overdoses in North Carolina jumped 66% from 2018, state data shows. Last year, the crisis claimed the lives of more than 4200 people in the state.
“Fentanyl is really the most dangerous thing that we’ve seen in decades,” said Mike Prado, the deputy special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in the Carolinas.
Read the full story and watch the video on the WRAL TV web site.
Rep. Buddy Carter Introduces Legislation To Classify People Who Died Of Fentanyl Poisoning As Crime Victims
Republican Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter introduced legislation Tuesday that would classify Americans who died of fentanyl poisoning as crime victims.
The Daily Caller first obtained the legislation, which is titled the Recognizing Victims of Illicit Fentanyl Poisoning Act. The bill would add individuals who have died because of illicit fentanyl poisoning to the list of recognized victims maintained by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The OVC administers the Crime Victims Fund, which supports programs and services that focus on helping victims in the immediate aftermath of crimes and continuing to support them as they rebuild their lives.
Veterans are on the front lines of a US opioid crisis that continues to worsen
The opioid epidemic has continued to plague the U.S. as new threats such as fentanyl spread across the country, placing the nation’s veterans on the front lines of a new kind of war.
“I’ve seen many post-9/11 veterans become addicts due to mental health,” Chelsea Simoni, a clinical nurse researcher and the founder of the Hunterseven Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “I’ve coded many young post-9/11 veterans in the ERs for opiate overdoses. I’ve seen mental health crises from addiction.”
Substance abuse among active duty military and veterans has been an issue policymakers have attempted to tackle for years, with service members being one of the country’s most vulnerable populations – in large part because of the stresses to their mental health in military service. According to a Department of Veterans Affairs estimate, roughly 20% of veterans being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder also struggle with drug or alcohol abuse.
Members of the military are also more likely to suffer physical injuries as part of their duties, a reality that often leads to troops being prescribed highly addictive painkillers.
Read the full article on the Fox News web site.
Monday number: A closer look at the mounting toll of fentanyl on the nation’s youth
Last year, Policy Watch delved into the epidemic within the opioid epidemic: the terrifying rise of synthetic opioid fentanyl and staggering number of deaths it has caused in North Carolina and across the country.
This month a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by the nonprofit Families Against Fentanyl sheds new light on the ongoing crisis, particularly deaths among children 14 and under.
The group’s analysis found fentanyl deaths among that group are rising faster than any other, tripling nationwide in just two years from 2019 to 2021 (the last year for which full CDC data is available). Over the same period, fentanyl deaths among infants increased twice as fast as overall deaths.
Read the full article on NC Policy Watch.