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Marijuana may quickly be laced with fentanyl, Baton Rogue coroner warns
In East Baton Rouge Parish, the coroner says 90% of drug overdoses embody fentanyl
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BATON ROUGE, La. – Drug overdose deaths have reached an all-time excessive, based on the CDC.
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Regulation enforcement officers nationwide are sounding the alarms, particularly in Louisiana the place officers say fentanyl is operating rampant.
The coroner for East Baton Rouge Parish, Dr. William Clark, says he is already recorded almost 250 drug deaths this yr, a quantity he is by no means reached earlier than. He provides that 90% of the drug deaths thus far embody fentanyl.
“I consider we will attain over 300 drug overdoses by the top of the yr,” Clark stated.
Baton Rouge mom Pamela Rivas has misplaced three youngsters to this epidemic, most lately her son Shawn in July.
“Somedays I get up and it would not really feel actual,” Rivas stated. “Then I stroll by way of the home and it’s actual as a result of I miss my son on a regular basis.”
A screenshot from a TikTok video Shawn Rivas made shortly earlier than he overdosed on fentanyl. Supply: Pamela Rivas
Rivas’ first expertise dropping a toddler got here in 2006, when her older son, Matthew, overdosed on meth.
“Matthew died shortly after dropping his father to most cancers,” Rivas stated. “I consider that it what turned him to make use of medicine, to attempt to numb the ache.”
Matthew’s overdose then lead her daughter, Danielle, to begin utilizing.
Rivas’ youngsters Matthew and Danielle. Supply: Pamela Rivas
“She was with Matthew the evening earlier than he died,” Rivas stated. “She blamed herself for not taking him to the hospital. You’ll suppose what occurred would have brought about her to say she would by no means use medicine, nevertheless it had the alternative impact.”
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Danielle struggled with dependancy for 15 years earlier than she died after taking heroine laced with fentanyl. Her dying got here simply three weeks earlier than Shawn’s.
“To have a look at her post-mortem report and see it wasn’t heroin, it was heroin laced with fentanyl, that was my first ever clue about how harmful these items is,” Rivas stated. “I believe dependancy is rather more advanced than we’re conscious. I had six youngsters. I’ve three that by no means tried medicine, by no means wished to attempt medicine, after which I’ve three that did. All three that did are useless.”
The CDC says the nation reported greater than 96,000 drug overdoses throughout the pandemic, a 30% enhance from March 2020. In Louisiana, that quantity is up by 56%.
In September, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued its first public security alert in six years warning People of the rise in pretend prescription tablets being laced with fentanyl.
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Clark says he predominantly sees the drug current in cocaine and heroin, however believes it is solely a matter of time earlier than it begins being laced in marijuana.
“This can be a drug that may be laced in something,” Clark stated. “You possibly can ingest it orally, you possibly can smoke it, you possibly can snort it. That is the priority. We’ve plenty of folks throughout the nation who use marijuana recreationally and if you find yourself with a batch that is acquired illicit fentanyl in it, the results may be disastrous.”
The DEA says a lethal dose of fentanyl is sufficiently small to suit on the scale of a pencil lead.
A lethal dose of fentanyl. Supply: DEA
Each Clark and Rivas consider legislation enforcement must crack down more durable on sellers. In addition they need to see extra therapy choices obtainable for these with dependancy.
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“I do not need what’s occurred to me to occur to some other mother or father,” Rivas stated. “It is a hell I do not need some other mother or father to ever should expertise.”
In Louisiana, when an individual dies from taking an unlawful drug, the seller may be charged with second-degree homicide. Rivas remains to be preventing for all of her youngsters’s killers to be put behind bars.
“What they suppose they’ve gotten away with, they have not gotten away with it as a result of justice could also be delayed proper now, however I can guarantee you, we’re not going to cease till they’re behind bars,” Rivas stated.
Rebekah Castor joined Fox Information in 2021 as a multimedia reporter based mostly in New Orleans.
