LEARNING ABOUT THE FENTANYL CRISIS

Orange County Senior Deputy
District Attorney
Nikki Elkerton

Nikki Elkerton is Senior Deputy District Attorney for Orange County, California. With twenty-three years of experience as a prosecutor, she now deals with fentanyl cases. Elkerton helps educate parents and the general public to deal with the fentanyl crisis so that they, in turn, can save lives. The following messages are from a presentation she made on June 8, 2023 at the annual gathering of The League of Women Voters of the Orange County Inter-League Organization (ILO).
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Growing up, we all took risks—particularly as teenagers. We made bad decisions. Luckily, in most cases, nothing happened. But times are different because experimenting with recreational drugs today presents a deadly risk; many drugs are laced with varying amounts of fentanyl that kill unsuspecting victims. This is a huge public issue facing California . . . and the nation.

Ingredients of fentanyl are produced mostly in China and shipped to Mexican cartels where it is mixed and made into pills, easy to transport across the border to the United States. Before, drugs were cut with substances such as baby powder, but today it is a lot cheaper to use fentanyl. Therefore, there are bigger profits to be made. Many who buy a particular drug do not know it contains fentanyl, and the amounts of this deadly drug are not precisely measured. The drug dealers only know that people who use fentanyl experience a greater high, and it is cheap to use as a filler. Taking drugs laced with fentanyl is taking a huge risk because only a bit of fentanyl—equal to one grain of salt—can be deadly. It kills.

In a powerful video, Elkerton shared the story of a mother, Amy Neville, talking about her 14-year-old son’s (Alexander’s) death due to fentanyl poisoning. Previously, he had been in a drug treatment program and realized on June 21st that he needed help and wanted to return to the program in order to stay away from drugs. On June 22nd, his parents contacted the treatment center to schedule a time to bring him in. On June 23rd, Amy knocked on her son’s bedroom door, but there was no answer. She went in and found she could not wake him up and later discovered it was due to taking one pill of oxycodone. But that pill had enough fentanyl in it to kill three people.
 
Link to the YouTube video discribed above:
Fighting Fentanyl: Alexander's story

How do kids get these pills? If you have a cell phone it is as easy to get drugs as it is to order a pizza. Often it is delivered by drones. Actually, most illicit drugs today have fentanyl mixed in, making the effect 60 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Elkerton calls fentanyl the “grief monster.” Among the eighteen to forty-five-year-olds, fentanyl is the leading cause of death.

We are facing a difficult time prosecuting drug dealers at the state level due to the many hurdles of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the dealer knowingly committed the crime of murder, wanted to kill, and forced the victim(s) to take the drug, aware the dead victim lacks the ability to report any evidence. Federal laws are stricter than state laws, so that helps Elkerton since she is federally-mandated. Federal law views it as a felony if the drug dealer knew the drug was a controlled substance, knew it was a prohibited drug and that the use of it could end a life.
 
Historically, investigations relating to drug dealers and the deadly fentanyl are extremely costly because they involve such activities as search warrants, subpoenas, records, retaining experts, performing autopsies, surveillance, and finger printing.

So, what can we do? EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN AND OURSELVES

We must educate kids with developmentally appropriate information they can understand. If the demand for drugs decreased, there would be less of a problem. Educate parents, for many are clueless and are unaware of fentanyl being so readily available. Parents can start by telling their children they are only allowed to take pills that a pharmacy has filled and not to take any pills from a friend. Fentanyl does have a legitimate use for pain but is given in controlled amounts, unlike drugs bought off the street or social media. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has found that for every 10 pills bought off the street, six have a potential dose that will kill.

Parents also may want to monitor social media such as Snapchat and What’s App and have regular discussions with their kids about the danger of fentanyl. Also, they should notice if there are changes in a child’s behavior and pay attention if there are new, questionable friends.

They can also look for the use of a coded list in their cell phones—for example 420 Charlie— and the use of such words as Chasing the Dragon, Fetty, China White, Fettucine, Confetti, Fetty Wrap (concert tickets), Blues, Percs and Roxy (Size M, Size 30), He Man, King Ivory . . . and others. It’s important to get educated and remember that terms will keep changing over time.
 
Elkerton’s department at the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) has a website, they distribute outreach materials, they support legislative measures, and they educate dealers about consequences of the distribution of drugs and causing the death of the user. An additional service is that the OCDA is in the process of training police officers in Orange County about fentanyl.

It is important for everyone to help spread the message. Fentanyl kills.

OCDA website: https://orangecountyda.org/

OCDA Fentanyl Deaths website link: https://orangecountyda.org/resource/fentanyl-deaths/

Submitted by MOTAL Board Members
Jo Ann Brannock, PhD, Director
with Greta Nagel, PhD, CEO and President