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Teen Overdoses

All articles tagged with #teen overdoses

health2 years ago•5 min saved

Texas community mourns teen's fentanyl overdose death and grapples with epidemic.

A 16-year-old Texas girl died of fentanyl poisoning after taking just one pill laced with the opioid, her parents and the teen’s school district announced Wednesday — the latest in a wave of teen overdoses in the state sparking lawmakers to call for schools to increase education surrounding the drug. Sienna Vaughn, a junior at Plano High School in Plano, Tex., took a pill Feb. 19 that she got from a friend that she thought was Percocet, a prescription painkiller she believed could help her relax, the girl’s family wrote on a memorial website for her.

via The Washington Post|

#drug-education #fentanyl #health

health2 years ago•8 min saved

Texas Community Confronts Fentanyl Epidemic After Teen Overdoses

A wave of fentanyl overdoses among teenagers in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District in Texas has left families in shock and anger. Nearly a dozen students have overdosed on fentanyl from September to March, with three deaths. Fentanyl, a highly potent and addictive synthetic opiate, has ravaged adult populations for nearly a decade, but mass proliferation of the drug in recent years, coupled with a Covid pandemic that eroded teen mental health, has given it a wider path to young people. Median monthly overdose deaths involving fentanyl for people ages 10 to 19 increased 182% from July to December 2019 compared to the same period in 2021, according to a December report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

via NBC News|

#community-outreach #drug-education #fentanyl