South Florida school districts working to educate students, parents about dangers of fentanyl
MIAMI - With the start of the new school year, South Florida school districts are working to educate students and families about a drug epidemic plaguing the nation.
Fentanyl overdoses in teens aged 14 to 18 increased by 94% from 2019 to 2020.
Teens may think they're taking prescription pills like Percocet or Valium - sold via e-commerce websites, social media or through friends, but those pills could be counterfeits that contain deadly doses of the synthetic opioid. It takes just a tiny bit of fentanyl to kill you.
Kendall Cortelyou is the director of the School of Global Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida.
"Fentanyl overdoses were steadily, steadily climbing, and then in 2020, we took a direct turn upward," Courtelyou said. "We saw a dramatic spike in fentanyl overdoses during the pandemic."
She said the introduction of fentanyl into the market is largely to blame. The chances that the pill someone is buying on social media or from anyone who is not a doctor contains fentanyl Is high.
"A pill that you get has about a 60 to 70% chance of containing a lethal dose of fentanyl," she said. "No matter what kind of pill it is because so many pressed pills can be made to look exactly like an oxycontin to be made to look exactly like an Adderall."
Courtelyou and Lisa Keeler work for Project Opioid South Florida, an educational organization that partnered with Miami-Dade Schools. They've already planned 100 assemblies to speak with students and distributed 1,000 sprays of Naloxone, which is the overdose reversal medication.
"We're starting the assemblies with our partners," Keeler said. "The Fentanyl Father's, the DEA, and the Miami Poison Control Center"
She said students need to understand these trends are not just impacting drug addicts, they're affecting teens and people who don't know what they're taking.
"Kids don't realize that they're on Snapchat, and they think that they're taking an Adderall, or they think that they are getting a Xanax. And what they are really getting is a pill that has fentanyl in it," she said.
Just two milligrams can kill you, which is the equivalent of 10 to 15 grains of salt.
"People are overdosing daily, especially in the tri-county," she said. "So, you know, it is a huge problem and we need to address it and we need to talk about it."
Lisa Keeler said carrying Narcan is just as important as having a fire extinguisher nearby. Her organization is in the process of working with Broward County Schools as well.
Broward County Schools partner with United Way of Broward County and other community organizations to educate students and create overdose prevention toolkits.
