KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Clay County Sheriff's Office is hosting two Community Drug Education Summits next week in response to noticing an uptick in overdoseslinked to pills laced with fentanyl.
The first summit is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 25, at Vineyard Church, and the second is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, at Oak Park High School.
Clay County Sheriff Will Akin said in a news release that the summits were scheduled in response to the death of an Oak Park High School student, who died on March 29 after taking a pill containing a lethal amount of fentanyl.
“The recent death of an Oak Park High School sophomore who took a fentanyl-laced pill has underscored the reason why we need to keep educating our community about this issue,” Akin said in the release.
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According to the release, the office's drug squad has investigated 15 fentanyl-related overdose deaths since July 2020. And since July 2021, the office has recovered 755 fentanyl-laced pills, according to the release.
The summits will feature detectives from the drug squad and addiction prevention and treatment resources from the Tri-County Mental Health and Signature Psychiatric.
"At the April 25 summit, a mother who lost her son to a fentanyl-laced pill and a recovering addict also will share their experiences," the release said. "After the presentation portion, attendees will be invited to meet with detectives and treatment providers to ask questions or get help one-on-one."
In September, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public alert about counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl after the department saw a sharp increase in its seizure of fentanyl-laced pills. The DEA seized more than 20 million counterfeit pills nationwide in 2021, which was more than the two previous years combined.
Another statistic that the DEA published in its public alert was that 42% of the pills seized contained a lethal dose of fentanyl. The fentanyl-laced pills can look like prescription pills, such as Adderall, Xanax or oxycodone, but fentanyl has also been found in other drugs like marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.
In February, the KSHB 41 I-Team looked into how counterfeit pill drug dealers are using social media and other e-commerce platforms to sell drugs to teens and others.
