Los Angeles Schools dealing with fatal fentanyl
A synthetic opioid called fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin. More than 107,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2021, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl responsible for nearly 71,000 of those deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last August, the DEA also released a warning about what it described as a "growing trend" in which "brightly-colored" fentanyl pills were being used to entice young people and become drug addicts.
Last month, when authorities made significant busts in Arizona and Colorado, the fight against the country's fentanyl crisis was clearly on show. Meanwhile, a wave of student overdoses was causing concern among education officials in Los Angeles.
The largest fentanyl seizure in the history of the city was claimed to have been made by the Phoenix Police Department and two people were also detained.
Following a traffic check, deputies in Mack, Colorado, just east of the Utah state border, found 2.4 pounds of fentanyl powder and about 90,000 fentanyl tablets inside a car, according to the Mesa County Sheriff's Office. And a driver, 22 years old, was detained.
The Los Angeles division of the Drug Enforcement Administration reported seizing 1.5 million fentanyl tablets in the first four months of 2022, a 64% rise over the same time in the previous year.
Melanie Ramos, 15 years old high school student who died on September 13 from fentanyl.
At least seven students have overdosed on potentially fentanyl-laced pills in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school district in the country, the LAPD revealed. One of them was Melanie Ramos, 15, a high school student who died on September 13 after taking what she and another victim thought were Percocet pills, according to the LAPD. Two adolescents have been detained in relation to her passing.
The administrator of the LAUSD West District, Dr. Adaina Brown, declared that "we must do better."
This is a tragedy that no parent should ever have to endure. Unfortunately, deaths from illicit fentanyl drug use is becoming all too common and with the government’s slow pace to combat this lethal drug, it will continue to destroy the lives of our children.
Our government is on the losing side of the fentanyl fight as they take a soft approach for penalties against illegal drug dealers who are knowingly cutting this lethal drug into counterfeit drugs to create a stronger potency. It has failed to take action against China for allowing the chemicals used to produce fentanyl to be exported to Mexico. They have failed to protect our borders and they have failed to hold Mexico accountable in dismantling the numerous illicit fentanyl drug labs located in Mexico.
In the weeks to follow, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho intends to provide Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, to every LAUSD campus. This is a great start to helping those who are actively overdosing. However, this does not stop the truckloads of lethal illegal drugs crossing our southern border. As Adaina stated, “We must do better.” It’s time to treat illicit fentanyl as what it truly is, “a weapon of Mass Destruction.”
To learn more about the history of fentanyl, it’s destruction on our community and the hazards it leaves behind, please read our in depth article Fentanyl - The Untold Story.
