With fentanyl, ‘Just say no’ can kill kids

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist checks confiscated powder containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory on Oct. 8, 2019 in New York. — AFP

MELANIE Ramos was only 15 years old when she died of a suspected overdose in a high school bathroom in Hollywood. Police reported that she and a friend had purchased pills they thought were prescription painkillers but which were likely fakes containing fentanyl, a potent opioid incorporated into counterfeit pills widely available in the illicit drug market.

Fentanyl has caused such overdoses to rise sharply despite declining drug use among young people in the United States. Recent data suggest it kills an average of 22 teens every week around the nation. Tragic stories like Melanie’s are playing out across the country – and at an unprecedented rate. In a new analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine, we found that fatal overdoses among US teens aged 14-18 hit an all-time high in 2022.