The story comes after Zach Didier, 17, passed away after buying the fentanyl-laced pills from a drug dealer on Snapchat.
What We Know:
- NBC News reported that on December 26, 2020, the Didier family finished watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Zach said goodnight to his family. The next day at noon, Zach’s father Chris found him dead by his desk.
- Zach believed he bought a prescription painkiller on Snapchat. The family assumed he purchased the medication to help him sleep, or to ease soreness from workouts. The pill turned out to contain a fatal amount of fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is fifty times more potent than heroin.
- According to NBC News, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently discovered over 600,000 counterfeit pharmaceutical pills in Mexico. The tablets are designed to appear like legitimate prescriptions. Some have even been made to look like Adderall, Percocet, and Xanax.
- DEA Special Agent Ray Donovan says traffickers use fentanyl for its cheap and easy-to-make synthetic properties. As many medications are made in Mexico, the DEA believes traffickers want to expand their market to the United States. The reason for this being that there are few locations in the U.S. that press pills.
- The DEA fears this is an escalating issue. They think there are traffickers who are tricking drug users into buying medicine. Donovan claims that dealers are luring in young adults and teenagers who “never used drugs or don’t have an addiction problem”.
- In 2019, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that Fentanyl-related deaths went up to 36,000. However, the proportion related to fraudulent pills is unknown. The CDC also reported that preliminary numbers imply that deaths from synthetic opioids have risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The DEA says 2 milligrams of fentanyl can kill an adult. Donovan also mentioned that the probability of drug prescriptions sold on Snapchat containing fentanyl is extremely high.
The person who sold Zach the counterfeit capsule has recently been arraigned, but the man has not entered a plea. Chris and Zach’s mother, Laura, attended the indictment. The parents have urged the public to be more responsible and accountable for their actions. Laura also says she does not want other parents to endure the same issue.
