(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A newly released report from Families Against Fentanyl, a nonprofit group spreading awareness about the opioid, revealed that deaths in children 14 and under are increasing at a faster rate than any other age group.
FAF founder Jim Rauh said that many of the deaths in the young age group are due to accidental ingestion, according to a press release.
It only takes a small amount for fentanyl poisoning to set in for both adults and children. The drug is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
“It’s so prevalent in society now,” said Rauh, who lost his 37-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning in 2015.
“Distribution goes to dispersion by entropy. That’s the law of physics. And it’s showing out because of the mass quantity of this material,” he said.
“It’s so prevalent that just our innocent children, by incidental contact, are being killed,” Rauh added. “And now it’s creeping into the schools and other enclosed environments.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that deaths by accidental exposure of the drug to children tripled in the 1-4 year old age group and quadrupled in children ages 5-14.
Fentanyl deaths among children 14 and under increased by 1,400% since 2015.
The Drug Enforcement Administration seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill everyone in America—double what was seized in 2021.
Out of the 379 million lethal doses of the synthetic drug, 50.6 million doses were fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl.
The CDC reported that it is common for illegal fentanyl powder to be laced with other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes it dangerous.
It only takes two milligrams of fentanyl, the size of 10 to 15 grains of salt, to kill, said Deb Cullen, who lost her 22-year-old son Zachary to illegal fentanyl.
“One packet of Sweet ‘N Low filled with fentanyl is enough to kill 500 people,” she said.
FAF is encouraging Congress to treat fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
House Republicans recently announced the formation of a a special committee on China, where the drug is largely trafficked from, which will investigate the fentanyl issue as part of its work.
