{"id":1184747,"date":"2023-03-07T15:10:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/as-easy-as-ordering-pizza-how-fentanyl-laced-pills-are-killing-americas-youth\/1184747\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T15:10:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:10:52","slug":"as-easy-as-ordering-pizza-how-fentanyl-laced-pills-are-killing-americas-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/as-easy-as-ordering-pizza-how-fentanyl-laced-pills-are-killing-americas-youth\/1184747\/","title":{"rendered":"‘As Easy As Ordering Pizza’: How Fentanyl-Laced Pills Are Killing America\u2019s Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

‘As Easy As Ordering Pizza’: How Fentanyl-Laced Pills Are Killing America\u2019s Youth<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

On the morning of July 25, 2020, Matthew Thomas took what he believed was a Percocet, a prescription drug for pain relief. He died moments later, the victim of fentanyl poisoning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 26, 2019, Austen Babcock took what he believed was cocaine. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. He died shortly after, another victim of fentanyl poisoning.<\/p>\n

April Babcock, Austen\u2019s mother, and Wendy Thomas, Matthew\u2019s mother, have both become activists to raise awareness about illicit fentanyl. Babcock is the founder of Lost Voices of Fentanyl<\/a>, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness on illicit fentanyl, and Thomas is the founder of Mathew\u2019s Voice.<\/a><\/p>\n

Both told The Epoch Times that obtaining illicit fentanyl is as easy as ordering a pizza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to all these moms [in Lost Voices of Fentanyl], and their kids go on social media and literally ordered drugs just like a pizza. It\u2019s just like Uber Eats. Well, now it\u2019s like Uber drugs<\/strong>,\u201d Babcock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these parents in the group literally saw the dealer on their Ring. They\u2019d pull up into their driveway, and their kid would run out. I mean, these pills are cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got fake Adderall pills on social media. Fake Xanax. Fake Percocet. I mean, all the pills are fake<\/strong>. These kids just don\u2019t realize they\u2019re literally buying death. They don\u2019t know,\u201d Babcock said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fentanyl. 2 mg. A lethal dose in most people. The diameter of the U.S. penny is 19.05 mm, or 0.75 inches. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas agreed and added that when she\u2019s given presentations at schools, kids have told her they hear about Percocet and Xanax in music videos, and when they buy pills over social media, that\u2019s what they think they\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to know that six in 10 pills are \u2026 potentially deadly,\u201d she said, citing Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) data.<\/p>\n

Undercounted<\/h2>\n

Families Against Fentanyl reports<\/a> that in 2021, fentanyl poisoning was the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45.<\/p>\n

And, in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 4,765 children and young adults aged 14\u201323 died from synthetic opioids\/fentanyl use\u2014more than double the 1,984 deaths in 2018.<\/p>\n

Babcock believes the number of overdose deaths from fentanyl is significantly underreported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a family\u2026 that\u2019s pretty definite their kid died from fentanyl because they found fentanyl at his house. But guess what? He was never tested<\/strong>!\u201d Babcock told The Epoch Times. \u201c[The death certificate] says he died from cocaine. No, he didn\u2019t. He died from fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo [that family] is trying to pass a bill in Maryland, so every hospital has to test for fentanyl. And, you know, I know there\u2019s places that still don\u2019t test for fentanyl, but I had no idea that was going on in my own state, and that\u2019s criminal! Those stats are a very lowball number.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear it all the time, \u2018They didn\u2019t test for fentanyl.\u2019 How are we ever going to get the right data? \u201d Babcock said.<\/p>\n

Babcock started Lost Voices of Fentanyl, a Facebook group<\/a>, in 2020. The group now has over 24,000 members, and every day, Babcock said she hears from parents who\u2019ve lost a child to fentanyl poisoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy isn\u2019t our government warning the public? They\u2019re not warning them!\u201d Babcock said. \u201cI mean, I know certain states are doing it. Like I know, in my state, Maryland, I\u2019ve seen two fentanyl commercials. And that\u2019s great. That\u2019s fine and dandy, but it\u2019s not good enough. You know, teenagers don\u2019t watch that anyway. We need a COVID-like response from our government for fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing Misunderstood Problem<\/h2>\n

In 2020, there were a reported 91,799 total drug-related deaths, according<\/a> to the CDC. By 2021, that number had climbed to 106,719. In both years, approximately<\/a> 82 percent of deaths involved at least one opioid, with fentanyl being the most common.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started Mathew\u2019s Voice<\/a> because my son Matthew died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020, in July. He was 20 years old,\u201d Thomas told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took what was supposed to be Percocet, and it was fentanyl. And so, I decided to go ahead and focus on high schools. I\u2019ve been to several high schools in North Carolina, and the biggest thing that surprises me is that most of them have not even heard of illicit fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe if Matthew had heard about it sooner\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Babcock concurred, \u201cWhat I\u2019m seeing is most of these people have no idea what fentanyl is. They\u2019re getting their [deceased] kids\u2019 toxicology reports back, and they had no warning to even warn their kids about fentanyl. Like they just didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas and Babcock are both quick to point out that what they\u2019re talking about isn\u2019t the pharmaceutical fentanyl prescribed to treat severe pain\u2014often post-surgery and for advanced-stage cancer. Instead, they\u2019re talking about illicit fentanyl found in counterfeit pills.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the DEA issued a public safety alert,<\/a> warning that six out of 10 fake prescription pills contained \u201ca potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more here…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 03\/07\/2023 – 19:25<\/span><\/p>\n

From:Zerohedge<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘As Easy As Ordering Pizza’: How Fentanyl-Laced Pills Are Killing America\u2019s Youth Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), On the morning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1184747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}