Every week, more than a dozen U.S. teenagers lose their lives to fentanyl. James Fishback reports on the unwitting victims—and the parents they’ve left behind.
The only way to stop this mass killing of our youth is to inspect each and every parcel that comes into the United States. Treat the cartels for what they are - terrorist organizations. Seal our porous borders. There is nothing to gain by decriminalizing drug sales, as noted by the abject failure in Oregon of this idiocy. We're being led down too damned many garden paths. For most, the good old days were the good old days.
Had a friend's son die of an accidental fentanyl overdose the night prior to going into rehab, which I'm told is common. His dealer was responsible for multiple deaths. But hey, gotta make a buck somehow,
How to reconcile this fentanyl unreliability with the stringent quality (and liability!) that we expect in our legal drugs? Why do Americans put up with it?
This is utterly, unfathomably horrible, on every level. I grew up in 1970s Queens NY and knew of too many people, mostly older teens, who died of heroin overdoses. As terrible as it was, not one of them didn't know what they were taking, or inadvertently took a painkiller like Percocet for dental pain, only to have it be laced with fentanyl. In 2017, I awakened from parathyroid surgery at Yale to a nurse getting ready to give me another dose of IV fentanyl for pain. Only, I wasn't in pain. I had to beg her not to give it to me; she had to call two doctors to get their approval. They wanted to know why I wouldn't take it; I said "because I'm not in pain." "But you will be," they said. I got them to agree to give it to me only if I asked for it, and only if extra strength Tylenol didn't work. They sent me home the next day with 4 oxys. I took one for pain, and brought the rest to my local police station. There is absolutely a need for controlled pain killers, but fentanyl is such a crapshoot that it feels like Russian Roulette, even at the hands of the medical community. My heart breaks for these kids, and for their parents. I cannot even fathom the devastation.
Here's what I advocate: don't take any pills! Healthy people don't need over-the-counter drugs of any kind! If you have the flu, drink some tea and go to bed. If you have a headache, drink some water. If you have a sore throat, swallow some honey. If you're having trouble concentrating on your studies because you're tired, get some sleep. If you have some serious illness or injury, see a doctor.
I still don't understand why these pills are laced with fentanyl. It makes no sense. In the old days cocaine etc. was laced with baby powder to save money. Why would anyone want to kill off customers? Which makes me believe, this is another assault on America. A deliberate inside job.
These tragic deaths are more than difficult to comprehend. How can one explain it? Yes, young people are growing up in a world today that is so very different from that which I knew, many years ago, when I was growing up.
Families were very different when I was growing up. Most institutions were different then--my era. The church, the neighborhood, the community and country, the school, law enforcement and gender roles.
We all need to read history, our history. When did the changes begin?
Putting the tooth paste back into the tube is impossible. Examining our past is not impossible to read and understand.
Thank you for this informative post. A parent whose child died from a fentanyl overdose spoke at my daughter's school and broke down in tears. It really affected my daughter. She understands the severity of the problem. We must all keep talking about it! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
Fentanyl is not killing the Kids, the Democratic Party and those who vote for the Democratic Party are killing the kids. They refuse to close the border in thier effort to remain in power with what they precive are future Democrats Voter’s. Along with those illegal aliens comes the fentanyl. Everyone one knows it and the Democratic voters themselves continue to support it by electing Democratic politician who refuse to close the borders.
Close the Border, you’ll stop the fentanyl and the Kids will stop dieing. Its really that simple. Those who choose not to close the border, in the end, are resposible for these deaths.
“It was no Percocet. It wasn’t even mixed with Percocet,” Amanda says of the pill that killed Luca. “He only had fentanyl in his system.”
As a retired psych and substance abuse RN and the father of a son I nearly lost to overdose, I have nothing but deep sympathy for Amanda Manuel over the loss of her son, Lucas.
And I might be reading too much into her statement. It nevertheless troubles me. While Fentanyl is undoubtedly scarier than Percocet, the latter is still a Schedule 2 opiod narcotic. It can and does cause overdose deaths, the singer Prince among them.
Moreover, we seem to have large numbers of people in our country who are comfortable self-medicating, as if Google or Wikipedia really tell you everything you need to know. Moreover, a child who is self medicating can be absolutely presumed to lack judgement about what is enough in terms of dosing.
Percocet can be addicting and it can be overdosed. I fear many kids will follow Luca to early deaths because, after all, it's not Fentanyl.
I know this is beside the point, but a 13 year old buying Percocet over the internet? I mean-- he just had dental surgery, why would he be going online to get a single pill instead of getting it from the dentist? And how does a child get to buy drugs over the internet? Isn't there something in place to prevent kids from purchasing illegal substances over the internet? I'm sincerely curious about this.
“We don’t know what was in it" - this wasn't a croissant or a cheeseburger. You know what was in it - a drug. Every one of these family members is living in denial. I have sympathy for them and the victims, it's a tragedy, but that only goes so far.
They all, to the one, chose to take the illicit substance. After describing how the two girls split a pill at a party, the mom then says, "My daughter had never popped pills." Lie. This was not the first time she did this. The boy from Texas - "had substance problems...not an addict." Lie. Even if you're high functioning, all good on the surface, you can be an addict. Cf. the pre-Med student. She had ADHD but obviously not a prescription for Adderall if she's getting them with fentanyl (and the author seemingly praises her and others like her "who take drugs to help them excel at school").
A whole generation of kids was raised thinking that being put on meds was good for them, and they hear how people want to keep legalizing hard drugs, so they must be fine. If the parents choose to lie to their kids about how dangerous these drugs are (or willingly withhold that information), then the kids will keep making bad choices that will destroy their lives.
Thank you, James. My heart aches for you and for the families of the five kids you wrote about here. My son is still in elementary school but this is a great reminder to have this conversation with him now. Never too early, sadly.
Every dealer caught should be charged with murder.
The only way to stop this mass killing of our youth is to inspect each and every parcel that comes into the United States. Treat the cartels for what they are - terrorist organizations. Seal our porous borders. There is nothing to gain by decriminalizing drug sales, as noted by the abject failure in Oregon of this idiocy. We're being led down too damned many garden paths. For most, the good old days were the good old days.
Had a friend's son die of an accidental fentanyl overdose the night prior to going into rehab, which I'm told is common. His dealer was responsible for multiple deaths. But hey, gotta make a buck somehow,
How to reconcile this fentanyl unreliability with the stringent quality (and liability!) that we expect in our legal drugs? Why do Americans put up with it?
This is utterly, unfathomably horrible, on every level. I grew up in 1970s Queens NY and knew of too many people, mostly older teens, who died of heroin overdoses. As terrible as it was, not one of them didn't know what they were taking, or inadvertently took a painkiller like Percocet for dental pain, only to have it be laced with fentanyl. In 2017, I awakened from parathyroid surgery at Yale to a nurse getting ready to give me another dose of IV fentanyl for pain. Only, I wasn't in pain. I had to beg her not to give it to me; she had to call two doctors to get their approval. They wanted to know why I wouldn't take it; I said "because I'm not in pain." "But you will be," they said. I got them to agree to give it to me only if I asked for it, and only if extra strength Tylenol didn't work. They sent me home the next day with 4 oxys. I took one for pain, and brought the rest to my local police station. There is absolutely a need for controlled pain killers, but fentanyl is such a crapshoot that it feels like Russian Roulette, even at the hands of the medical community. My heart breaks for these kids, and for their parents. I cannot even fathom the devastation.
Very helpful info. Thank you!
Here's what I advocate: don't take any pills! Healthy people don't need over-the-counter drugs of any kind! If you have the flu, drink some tea and go to bed. If you have a headache, drink some water. If you have a sore throat, swallow some honey. If you're having trouble concentrating on your studies because you're tired, get some sleep. If you have some serious illness or injury, see a doctor.
I have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for any idiot who ingests any drug. If you’re that stupid, get on with it.
I still don't understand why these pills are laced with fentanyl. It makes no sense. In the old days cocaine etc. was laced with baby powder to save money. Why would anyone want to kill off customers? Which makes me believe, this is another assault on America. A deliberate inside job.
These tragic deaths are more than difficult to comprehend. How can one explain it? Yes, young people are growing up in a world today that is so very different from that which I knew, many years ago, when I was growing up.
Families were very different when I was growing up. Most institutions were different then--my era. The church, the neighborhood, the community and country, the school, law enforcement and gender roles.
We all need to read history, our history. When did the changes begin?
Putting the tooth paste back into the tube is impossible. Examining our past is not impossible to read and understand.
Thank you for this informative post. A parent whose child died from a fentanyl overdose spoke at my daughter's school and broke down in tears. It really affected my daughter. She understands the severity of the problem. We must all keep talking about it! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
Fentanyl is not killing the Kids, the Democratic Party and those who vote for the Democratic Party are killing the kids. They refuse to close the border in thier effort to remain in power with what they precive are future Democrats Voter’s. Along with those illegal aliens comes the fentanyl. Everyone one knows it and the Democratic voters themselves continue to support it by electing Democratic politician who refuse to close the borders.
Close the Border, you’ll stop the fentanyl and the Kids will stop dieing. Its really that simple. Those who choose not to close the border, in the end, are resposible for these deaths.
“It was no Percocet. It wasn’t even mixed with Percocet,” Amanda says of the pill that killed Luca. “He only had fentanyl in his system.”
As a retired psych and substance abuse RN and the father of a son I nearly lost to overdose, I have nothing but deep sympathy for Amanda Manuel over the loss of her son, Lucas.
And I might be reading too much into her statement. It nevertheless troubles me. While Fentanyl is undoubtedly scarier than Percocet, the latter is still a Schedule 2 opiod narcotic. It can and does cause overdose deaths, the singer Prince among them.
Moreover, we seem to have large numbers of people in our country who are comfortable self-medicating, as if Google or Wikipedia really tell you everything you need to know. Moreover, a child who is self medicating can be absolutely presumed to lack judgement about what is enough in terms of dosing.
Percocet can be addicting and it can be overdosed. I fear many kids will follow Luca to early deaths because, after all, it's not Fentanyl.
I know this is beside the point, but a 13 year old buying Percocet over the internet? I mean-- he just had dental surgery, why would he be going online to get a single pill instead of getting it from the dentist? And how does a child get to buy drugs over the internet? Isn't there something in place to prevent kids from purchasing illegal substances over the internet? I'm sincerely curious about this.
Unfortunately we published another fentanyl story today https://families4newyork.com/nyc-voices/familys-fentanyl-tragedy
“We don’t know what was in it" - this wasn't a croissant or a cheeseburger. You know what was in it - a drug. Every one of these family members is living in denial. I have sympathy for them and the victims, it's a tragedy, but that only goes so far.
They all, to the one, chose to take the illicit substance. After describing how the two girls split a pill at a party, the mom then says, "My daughter had never popped pills." Lie. This was not the first time she did this. The boy from Texas - "had substance problems...not an addict." Lie. Even if you're high functioning, all good on the surface, you can be an addict. Cf. the pre-Med student. She had ADHD but obviously not a prescription for Adderall if she's getting them with fentanyl (and the author seemingly praises her and others like her "who take drugs to help them excel at school").
A whole generation of kids was raised thinking that being put on meds was good for them, and they hear how people want to keep legalizing hard drugs, so they must be fine. If the parents choose to lie to their kids about how dangerous these drugs are (or willingly withhold that information), then the kids will keep making bad choices that will destroy their lives.
Thank you, James. My heart aches for you and for the families of the five kids you wrote about here. My son is still in elementary school but this is a great reminder to have this conversation with him now. Never too early, sadly.