I debated starting a thread about fentanyl; but after hearing a talk by law enforcement this weekend (we live in a border state) and experiencing the devastation of yet another family (planning a funeral for their young adult) I am just so sad. 5 families in the last year and a half that we know personally. Good kids who made some dumb decisions… Are other parts of the country dealing with this as well? Is there a solution? The constable who spoke said he has never in all of his 40 years seen the drug devastation that is corroding our kids/communities.
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It is truly terrible, here in the mid-atlantic, and is intersected with the mental health crisis of teens and the pandemic.
Terrible in Maine, too. 
Then there was this in Austin: “Jake Ehlinger, the University of Texas linebacker and brother of former Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger, died in May, 2021 from what his family said was an accidental overdose of what was believed to be Xanax laced with drugs, including fentanyl.”
Sam had just started playing for the Colts, and the owner let him use his private jet to fly to Texas to be with his mom. The boys’ father died at age 46 while participating in a triathlon a few years earlier.
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Thanks for the title edit. I was not sure if putting fentanyl in the subject line was ok.
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Yes, it is an issue and the stories are heartbreaking. This organization spoke recently at my D’s school and may be a resource for parents and students.
BirdieLight’s mission is to educate the public on the dangers of fentanyl in drugs and distribute life-saving tools to prevent overdose.
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It’s a huge issue in the Midwest. I keep hearing about young people in my area who died of an unintended OD due to fentanyl. I’d like to think that the possibility of dying would stop people from taking illicit drugs, but I’m not that naive. I wish I knew how to stop it.
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The constable said the cartels are setting up shop on this side of the border. The amount of organization and infrastructure is crazy.
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When I was in the hospital last week, one of my roommates was an addict who had been taking buphenorphine until the doctor who prescribed it died. At that time it was very difficult to find a prescriber–much less so now. She was found OD’d on Fentanyl on the sidewalk near her home. She has a very supportive family including a young adult daughter she lives with and her mother, both of whom visited every day. It was such a relief to her (and to all of us) when the nurse started giving her the buphenorphine every day on the proper schedule, and she was leaving the following day to an in-patient rehab for a short time. She had other medical issues including MS. Other hospital employees told her and her family that they too had family members who succumbed to substances (meth, crack, whatever). I have my own set of stories about my late brother. It is so much healthier and more effective to treat substance use as a medical issue, and harm reduction is a worthy goal.
I have a psychotherapy client, an Ivy grad, middle school teacher also studying for a PhD, who had a problem with alcohol. She is a brilliant scientist and knows the damage that alcohol does to the body. She had already cut way back in her alcohol use, and nNow that there are a few marijuana dispensaries in NYC, she keeps some edibles to use when she really needs to relax and go to sleep before another totally busy day.
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Xylazine is an even more dangerous street drug. Narcan does not reverse it.
Animal Tranquilizer Xylazine Poses Major Threat - Addiction Center
Big problem in California too. Sam Quinones’ book “The least of us” is very good on the topic. Here he is on KQED’s Forum talking about his research.
Been a problem in the midwest for a long time now. One of my D’s teammates died at age 17. Absolutely horrible.
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I got naloxone (Narcan) years ago. I kept it in my bag because I was teaching lots of undergrads at the time. Now it’s in the medicine cabinet at home with everything else. After surgeries, etc we turn our extra opioids in to the pharmacy disposal.
I’ll be getting some new naloxone doses (along with Plan B, etc) and sending some with my kid to college in the fall. Maybe I’ll get extras and send them with his friends too.
I have a professional peer who lost her vibrant 16 year old to fentanyl just a year ago. She and her spouse are medical experts but he was sadly in his room alone during an accidental overdose at home. Beyond tragic.
Yes, narcan wouldn’t work for xylazine since that’s not an opioid. Unfortunately, there’s not a great option to treat overdose for that. I don’t know that people in the USA are seeking it out, but it does seem like its use in adulterating other drugs is increasing. It seems like fentanyl is almost always present when xylazine is found.
We also take a harm reduction approach to risky behavior with our kids, although they haven’t elected to engage in risky behaviors so far. The eldest has physical issues and a disposition that don’t make substance use attractive to him. But it will be really good for him to learn about harm reduction regardless. We shall see what happens with the younger.
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Over 90% of the fentanyl that’s making it into the recreational use drug supply is coming from China, which is such a tightly-controlled, authoritarian regime, that it is quite obvious that the regime is at the very least looking the other way, and more likely promoting it.
Honestly, the only solution is that all of the recreational drugs should be treated as we deal with alcohol, and are beginning to deal with marijuana. Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. But who could imagine a dispensary that dispenses cocaine, methamphetamine, narcotic pills, heroin, fentanyl, LSD, along with marijuana? As a nation, we don’t seem to have the will to go to the other extreme, with long prison sentences for dealers and users alike.
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One thing we can do as parents, to help mitigate the tail end outcome of this epidemic, is to send our students to campus with Narcan.
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I was just looking into this! It’s available behind the counter, both spray and injection. I could not imagine my kid losing a friend to fentanyl overdose. Obviously, it’s the sort of thing that a person cannot use for themselves, the only reason to have it is to help others. Sort of like having a cardioversion kit on the wall in a public place. It’s ironic. No one says that we shouldn’t have defibrillators available, since it’s the person’s own damned fault for having been sedentary and overweight. Yet we will debate whether or not to keep Narcan on hand, since the person is voluntarily a drug user.
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I could get it from my county health department years ago when I last checked. I just walked into CVS, asked for Narcan, and they sold it to me. I didn’t bother with insurance or anything and just paid out of pocket. It wasn’t that expensive. I’m going to look into where to get it for free and have my kid tell all his senior friends/parents about it.
ETA: You can make an appointment with our county nurse and they’ll give you free narcan and show you how to use it. Maybe turn it into a group graduation activity LOL
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Yes! I didn’t know until I started looking into it just a couple of weeks ago that Narcan was available as a nasal spray. This really makes it so easy to administer- we should all have it on hand. There’s no debate in my mind.
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Thanks for sharing. I didn’t realize it was so easily obtained. I’ll ask for some the next time I am at the pharmacy.
I didn’t realize it was so readily available either. I will mention to my kid… the pre-health club at her school may include that info in one of their activities. Thanks!
EDIT: She says they are already doing it. 
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