Fentanyl Awareness Day workshop

On May 9, the Orange County Board of Education hosted the Fentanyl Awareness Day workshop. It was an opportunity for every parent, school staff, and caregiver to get information about fentanyl and counterfeit pills, learn how to identify and prevent overdoses, and find resources to support youth and families. The Orange County Health Care Agency provided free Narcan kits to help save lives in an emergency.

I have known or heard about fentanyl but I didn’t really pay much attention to it. One simple reason is that none of family member of mine is a drug addict or struggling with drug abuse. But why did I decide to attend the workshop? Three reasons.

I wanted to know about fentanyl on why it is so dangerous and why so many people died from it.

Fentanyl is a painkiller that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Criminals are mixing it into illegal drugs sold surreptitiously on the streets and counterfeiting or imitating prescription drugs like oxycodone, leading to thousands of medical emergency deaths nationwide.

Over 150 people die daily from overdoses involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. In Orange County, where I am living right now, in 2017, there were 57 fentanyl-related deaths. That number rose to 717 people in 2021, and drug poisoning is the leading cause of unexpected deaths, with the highest numbers in the 30-39 age group.

I wanted to know why it is important for parents to talk about fentanyl to their children.

One of the topics covered during the workshop was how parents can talk to their teenage children about fentanyl. Parents can use the daily news and what is discussed during the workshop to ask their children what they have seen or heard about fentanyl and its prescription drugs. Doctors. From there, parents can share facts and concerns with their children and emphasize that only medications are allowed under a doctor's prescription.

The workshop also outlined ways to protect their families. Currently, many pills are being sold through social media, so parents must monitor their children's social media accounts and use parental controls by keeping and monitoring. medicines in your home and eliminate all excess to prevent your children from trying or using them.

At the end of the event, everyone was given an emergency kit of Naloxone/Narcan, an emergency medicine that can help prevent opioid poisoning and restore breathing.

Drugs can contain high levels of lethal fentanyl that people won't be able to see, taste or smell it. It is nearly impossible to tell if a medication contains fentanyl unless testing it with a fentanyl test strip. Even if the test is negative, caution should still be exercised because the test strip may not detect more potent fentanyl-like drugs, such as carfentanil.

In California, over 800 young people under 25 died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021, which increased 18 times from five years ago. Fentanyl was the primary cause of 1 in 5 deaths among California youth ages 15-24 in 2021.

I wanted to know how California, the state I am living right now has done on fentanyl.

Recently, California legislators passed four bills related to fentanyl measures, including AB 33 to launch a task force to manage fentanyl addiction and overdoses; AB 474 to prioritize affiliation between state and local law enforcement to dismantle fentanyl trafficking; AB 675 to illegalize carry a gun while in possession of fentanyl; and AB 701 to raise penalties for dealers by categorizing fentanyl as heroin and cocaine.

It is clearly that fentanyl is such a big threat to the society right now. The easiest target for fentanyl is children and teenager because they are easy to fall into that dark path. Besides the three reasons I attended the workshop, I wanted to know how to protect the children when I have kinds in the future. It is important.