We hear it all the time, how perilous are these times in which we live. Everyone needs to be alert, aware, and prepared in the event that a threat becomes a crisis. Today we are going to talk about something that started to appear in our fair state last summer: Rainbow fentanyl, the deadliest drug threat in the United States right now. Children are the targets.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost recently took to media like YouTube to reach out to the families and educators in the state about a dire advisory: Rainbow fentanyl is made to look like candy (SweeTarts.) It has been found in Ohio, identified by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) labs. It is targeting kids. It is real, Yost said.
What you think is candy, he said, “could be a poison to kill someone you love.” He referred to information from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration.)
Recently, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram spoke out against the drug cartels across our southern border who are behind these attacks against Americans.
“Rainbow fentanyl – fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes,” she said, “is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults.”
Take a few minutes to process what she said, and where this stuff is coming from. The DEA has reported that the chemicals used in Mexico to produce the highly dangerous synthetic opioid come from China. Think about these things. Then think some more about little children who share candy at school, when they are playing in the neighborhood, on shopping trips. Anyplace where children find each other. Children who do not yet realize that there are bad people in this world who don’t care about the children who are faceless, nameless to them.
Attorney General Yost has pleaded with the federal government to do its job, to enforce the border laws to slow the flood of drugs coming into the United States from Mexico. “Even if you can’t win the war on drugs,” he said, “at least slow down the river!”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. “Synthetic opioids are substances that are synthesized in a laboratory and that act on the same targets in the brain as natural opioids (e.g. morphine and codeine) to produce …pain relief …”
This illicit drug is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. An amount the size of three grains of salt is lethal, advises the CDC.
“If you encounter fentanyl in any form, don’t touch it. Call 911 immediately,” the DEA advises. And to learn more about the drug, to see what it looks like, to understand this public health threat, visit www.dea.gov, the article, “DEA warns of brightly-colored fentanyl used to target young Americans.”
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reports that more than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Know the signs of overdose:
• Small, constricting “pinpoint pupils.”
• Falling asleep or losing consciousness.
• Slow, weak or no breathing.
• Choking or gurgling sounds
• Limp body
• Cold and/or clammy skin
• Discolored skin (especially lips and nails.)
If you think someone is overdosing, what should you do? Call 911. Administer naloxone if it’s available. Try to keep the person awake and breathing. Lay the person on his or her side to prevent choking. Stay with the person until emergency assistance arrives.
Training to use naloxone is available at Family Recovery Center. Contact Tawnia Jenkins, Project Dawn coordinator, 330-424-1468, extension 149 or email her at tjenkins@familyrecovery.org for more information.
For help or more information, contact Family Recovery Center, 964 N. Market St., Lisbon; phone, 330-424-1468. Visit the website at familyrecovery.org. FRC is funded in part by Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.