Fentanyl Epidemic in Teens
Flow of Fentanyl into America
Deaths associated with the illicit flow of fentanyl into American culture is often deemed to be an adult problem. In cities, addicts gathered in small clusters—like The Tenderloin district of San Francisco—will jump at any drug that comes their way. In the suburbs, people craving an exciting recreational high are at full risk because they don’t know what’s in a drug that has been purchased. Online dealers are notorious for flooding the market with fentanyl-laced powders and pills. These cases are proliferating in recent years, though too often they fall out of consciousness as an issue that is irrelevant. But what about the kids?
What’s most alarming are the new stories about teenage deaths because of fentanyl use. They are being reported recently in wider visibility. A troubling story comes from San Jose where in November 2020 a 12-year-old girl bought an “M-30” pill that she thought was a dose of the euphoric Percocet opioid. She was with two other teenage girls who were taking a video while their friend crushed the pill and snorted the powder. She then passed out because of a fentanyl overdose. Her friends took her to a regional medical center where she was declared dead. She became the youngest person to die in Santa Clara County that year.
On the day she died, the San Jose Police Department arrested a 16-year-old teenager who sold the pill to her. They said they traced the illegal dealing to his Google Photos account that showed screenshots of public service warnings over fentanyl overdoses. In a statement, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “After thousands of deaths, everyone should know that fentanyl is a deadly poison.”
While executing a search warrant, police officers found 100 bags of fentanyl in the bedroom of the Hartford, Connecticut, teenager who died of an overdose in school. - Hartford Public Schools
In 2022, the county announced that the dealer was facing murder charges. It’s the second such case in the county where a 14-year-old Concord high school student died after ingesting an M-30 pill. In the area, earlier an 18-year-old man died from fentanyl after buying a pill over Snapchat. That dealer was also charged with murder.
Three thousand miles away, a horrendous case of fentanyl abuse took place in Connecticut at the Sports and Medical Science Academy magnet school where a 13-year-old student who was dealing bags of fentanyl powder collapsed in the gymnasium and died two days later on January 13, 2022. Two other students at the school were sickened after exposure but recovered in an area hospital. Investigators determined that the deceased had taken the drugs to school. Authorities uncovered 60 bags that were linked to the 13-year-old. The bags were stashed in two classrooms and the gym. The school was evacuated and locked down after the incident to give way to an extensive cleanup. The school reopened to students on January 19.
The police executed a search warrant for the seventh grader’s home where they uncovered another 100 bags in his bedroom. “This fentanyl was packaged in the same manner as the bags located at the school, had the same identifying stamp and tested at an even higher purity level [60%],” Hartford police said. “We can confidently say that the fentanyl that caused the overdose was the same fentanyl that was located in the juvenile’s bedroom.”
The Hartford police has yet to determine who was the dealer of the drugs to the youngster. It is still in the midst of conducting additional testing, including fingerprint and DNA analysis.
The most disturbing takeaway is that the fentanyl crisis has taken its deadly toll on all classes and all ages.
—Dan Ouellette
