Video
There’s rising concern that fentanyl is turning into extra accessible to children
Well being officers say fentanyl isn’t simply killing individuals within the substance abuse neighborhood, it’s additionally killing youngsters who aren’t even conscious they’re taking it.
NEWYou can now hearken to Fox Information articles!
Columbia, S.C. – Well being officers say fentanyl isn’t simply killing individuals within the substance abuse neighborhood, it’s additionally killing youngsters who aren’t even conscious they’re taking it.
The lethal drug has been present in vape pens on highschool campuses in current months. And officers have a rising concern that center faculty, highschool, and college-aged children are being focused as criminals make fentanyl capsules disguised as oxycodone, Adderall, and Xanax.
Jamie Puerta’s solely youngster, Daniel, was 16 when he died after taking a tablet containing a deadly dose of fentanyl.
CALIFORNIA DAD WHO LOST DAUGHTER TO FENTANYL POISING SENDS MESSAGE TO BIDEN
“I walked into my son’s room at 8 o clock within the morning and located him useless,” Puerta mentioned.
The Santa Clarita, California, resident is now devoted to maintaining the drug out of the arms of younger individuals.
“I’ll by no means see him get married or have a household of his personal. I’ll by no means be a grandfather,” Puerta mentioned.
Officers have a rising concern that center faculty, highschool, and college-aged children are being focused as criminals make fentanyl capsules disguised as Oxycodone, Adderall, and Xanax.
(Cary Quashen)
Final month, police confiscated vape pens laced with fentanyl from college students a minimum of two American excessive colleges. One in Madisonville, Tennessee, and one other in Norwalk, Connecticut.
19-year-old Johan Pleitez of El Monte, California says the issue is frequent. He’s in rehab after overdosing on fentanyl.
“I’m a teen myself, so I do know lots of people that try this at college, you recognize, it’s dangerous. They don’t know what they’re smoking anymore,” Pleitez mentioned.
When requested how most college students get their arms on illicit medicine like Fentanyl, Pleitez mentioned “Snapchat, Instagram, individuals from their faculty, it’s in every single place.”
“Too many youngsters are dying, and there needs to be no cause for this,” Puerta mentioned.
Puerta says his son Daniel purchased the deadly tablet via a supplier on Snapchat pondering it was oxycodone.
Oxycodone is the generic title for a variety of opioid painkillers
(iStock)
“I’m seeing children, 16-year-old children, which are shopping for medicine on the web. These medicine are being dropped off to their houses,” mentioned Cary Quashen, proprietor of Motion Drug Rehab in Santa Clarita, CA.
Puerta says his son consumed half a tablet and it took his life.
“Do I condone his choice of eager to self-medicate throughout the pandemic or eager to take a tablet? Completely not. I don’t condone it. However he actually didn’t should die for making that call,” Puerta mentioned.
Sarah Goldsby, with the South Carolina Division of Alcohol and Different Drug Abuse Companies (DAODAS), says there’s rising concern about fentanyl use in center, highschool, and school college students.
GOP HOUSE DOCTORS CAUCUS PRESSURES MAYORKAS ON FENTANYL AS OPIOID EPIDEMIC SURGES
“These medicine appear to be Adderall which is a really generally misused prescription drug by our school college students.”
Though Goldsby says the U.S. has by no means seen a drug this threatening earlier than, she says it’s vital to recollect that there’s all the time hope.
Fentanyl capsules.
(U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration)
“There’s no disgrace in asking for assist, assist is out there and plenty of persons are recovering from opioid use dysfunction,” she mentioned.
It’s not solely younger individuals. Fentanyl kills extra adults age 18-45 than the rest within the U.S., in response to CDC knowledge, and anxieties from the pandemic have doubtless been making the issue worse.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“These medicine will not be regulated in any respect. They’re manufactured at the back of somebody’s truck, condominium, lavatory,” Goldsby mentioned.
Those that are on the lookout for therapy choices can name the nationwide Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA) hotline at 1-800-662-help.
Austin Westfall joined FOX Information in 2021 as a multimedia reporter in Charlotte.
