Fentanyl is the number one reason for unintentional drug deaths in the nation.
The San Diego Board of Supervisors recently approved a fentanyl education program for San Diego’s schools. The program was first proposed by Supervisor Jim Desmond in an attempt to reduce the number of deaths caused by fentanyl.
“What we did, and what I put forward at our board meeting, which got accepted, is that we have to get an education program out there to our kids. If they’re out there experimenting with marijuana and they go to one of these other pills they have to know this can kill them and they don’t even know its in there.”
“It’s very scary so we want to get an education program out there to our schools, to the kids to know that any drug could be laced with fentanyl, and it can kill you.” Desmond said in an interview with KUSI News.
Fentanyl deaths have grown to surpass deaths caused by car accidents, COVID, heart disease, and gun violence in people aged 18 to 45, making it the number one killer of this age group in the nation.
In 2020 the number of unintentional fentanyl-caused deaths in San Diego was 462, according to the Prescription Drug Abuse Task force. By July 2021, it was over 400 deaths with the year ending at 800 and counting. The fentanyl death rate is exploding.
Jim Desmond’s call to action and awareness for the children of San Diego through the fentanyl education program as stated on his site, does three things:
- Works with education officials and the California State Legislature to require fentanyl awareness education in San Diego County classrooms.
- Increases Narcan distributions and pieces of training across the county to parents and student first responders.
- Allows the county to explore opportunities for additional funding to support on-campus drug and alcohol awareness programs.
The border between Tijuana and San Diego’s San Ysidro is the nation’s largest fentanyl gateway. Six thousand pounds of fentanyl with the ability to kill 1.4 million people was seized in San Diego last year, demonstrating the grave danger the drug poses for the nation and specifically for the youth of San Diego just across the Mexican border.
Now that an educational program is in place, parents can save children and encourage wise choices with a reminder – in the words of San Diego’s District Attorney Summer Stephan, “One pill will kill.”
Still, Desmond believes there’s more to be done, “These are good steps, but now I want to make it mandatory for kids in school to be educated about the deadly effects of fentanyl. It’s going to take a collaborative effort between parents, government, and our schools to save lives, but I believe this action will do it!”
