Parents, please educate your children about the dangers of fentanyl.

In all my years of work in education, I have never seen a drug-trafficking crisis as serious and dangerous as the one we are facing today with fentanyl. School leaders with whom I speak consider fentanyl one of the most pressing problems today. We are seeing a dramatic increase in student overdoses with tragic and fatal consequences.

I was heartbroken to learn of the death of 15-year-old Melanie Ramos, who died of an overdose in September at Hollywood High School. Melanie took a single pill that she thought contained another drug, Percocet, but was actually laced with fentanyl. A month after his death, there were 6 more cases of student overdoses that police believed were related to the same batch of pills.

The investigation carried out Kaiser Family Foundation shows that fentanyl overdose deaths hit Hispanics in California particularly hard. Hispanics account for 31% of deaths from this cause in our state. Studies have shown that these overdoses have been steadily on the rise in our Hispanic communities since 2019.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Production methods are also much less complex than heroin. Fentanyl is made in a lab and is getting cheaper as the chemicals used to synthesize it can be easily found online and shipped worldwide. Once synthesized, fentanyl looks like any other powdered drug.

Because it is so cheap and available, street dealers have used it to cut their costs and make a more powerful product. As a result, what naive young people think they get on the street can contain fentanyl in lethal concentrations. The only way to know if a medicine contains fentanyl is to take a test. It cannot be detected by sight, smell or taste. Distributors manufactured it to look like brightly colored candy, masking its lethality.

It is unrealistic to think that we can completely stop fentanyl-related deaths. However, we can reduce the chance of our loved ones falling victim to this extremely dangerous drug through community-wide education, open communication, awareness and care. School leaders are well aware that their role is to provide information to their students about street drugs and are committed to increasing drug education. California public schools receive training and support and resources from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), including emergency doses of naloxone, which can help prevent overdose deaths if taken early.

Families should also talk about the dangers of any drugs bought on the street. There are resources to help parents talk to their children about the risks.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has published a resource containing important facts for parents. https://bit.ly/3ElgCLV and for teenagers: https://bit.ly/3V7WWSw

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also has resources that provide information about fentanyl in Spanish. https://bit.ly/3GqAAHH.

Talking to our children about these sensitive topics is difficult. As a mother of a teenager, I know how unpleasant certain topics can be, and I also know that our children react to them with restraint.

In my case, I decided to address the issue directly and spoke to my son on the same day that the Hollywood tragedy happened. We watched CDPH videos together. I asked him to take care of his friends and classmates. I wanted him to see himself as part of a protective community that protects each other and doesn’t take a fight as an accusation. We both feel better and more prepared after having a frank conversation.

Our community has witnessed how drug abuse and addiction affects far too many of our families. This new danger makes the drug crisis even deadlier. Don’t let discomfort or the fact that none of us are addiction experts stop you. Talk to your son or daughter, you can save their life or the life of their classmates.

Myrna Castrejon is President and CEO of the California Charter School Association (CCSA).

Author: Myrna Castrehon
Source: La Opinion

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest