Fentanyl continues to take young lives and ruin families. Plano has seen this happen before, decades ago, when another drug shocked North Texas.
Dozens of Plano residents shuffled toward the shade pavilion adjacent to a large playground at Prairie Meadow Park. It was starting to get chilly the evening of Sunday, April 16, four days before what would have been Sienna Vaughn’s 17th birthday. A woman walked on the neatly manicured grass with two small white dogs, and mourners passed out custom wristbands in virtually every color.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to treat severe pain. The state’s health department estimates that since 2019, fentanyl deaths in Texas have spiked more than 500%. Victims’ families frequently say they weren’t aware that the drug is being cut into what dealers claim are brand-name prescription pills. Some hadn’t even heard of fentanyl before laying their loved one to rest.
Some 100 attendees trickled into the Plano Event Center on March 30 as gray clouds loomed outside. Somber instrumental music played on the auditorium’s speakers at the Plano Police Department’s “Fentanyl Drug Forum.” As the Vaughns walked to their seats up front, Stephanie smiled and waved at another audience member. A pair of women situated close to the stage talked quietly.
Horton described her child as a “mama’s girl” with a passion for photography, music and anime. Jessie also struggled with a substance-use disorder, but she didn’t want to die, Horton said. She’d taken what she thought was OxyContin from someone she’d trusted. She didn’t realize that it was actually fentanyl.Cases in which law enforcement encountered drugs that tested positive for fentanyl have skyrocketed in recent years, with the number of episodes in the U.S.
Laura Zimmer, director of counseling services with Plano ISD, advised parents in the audience to monitor or restrict their kids from using social media, which has essentially become the go-to marketplace for illicit drugs. It’s OK to be nosy when it comes to one’s children, she said, adding to watch out for changes in behavior or dips in grades. It may not be substance abuse at the moment, but depression and anxiety can potentially lead to that.
Collin County’s medical examiner logged at least eight deaths from heroin overdoses between 1987 and the last month of 1995, thereported in May 1999. Most of the casualties had been hardcore drug users in their late 30s. But the victims’ ages began to drop: from 27 to 21, and then to an average of 18. Outlets like MTV andUndocumented immigrants and Mexican cartels bore the brunt of the blame for the heroin, called “chiva,” making its way to suburban kids, thereported.
It’s possible that some students today may also realize that they’re taking a risk by experimenting with prescription meds, Ryan said. “But most of them, I think, like Sienna, did not know what she was [taking] and was tricked, and she was poisoned,” he continued. “That’s the difference.” Since Sienna’s death, the Vaughns have spoken to several media outlets, hoping to raise awareness about the crisis that claimed their daughter. They had tried their best to protect Sienna from the synthetic opioid. Stephanie even warned her against taking fentanyl pills. But what they didn’t know at the time was that other pills, like those billed as Xanax and Percocet, would serve as a sort of “Trojan horse” for fentanyl.
Stefanie Turner was emotional on the night of Sienna’s candlelight vigil. It’d been 18 months since the Austin mom had attended a memorial. That one was for her son, 19-year-old Tucker Roe. “What I didn't know is what happens in the brain when you take one of those pills,” Turner told the Plano vigil attendees. “And for the record, 99% of all pills seized by the DEA contain fentanyl — 99% of pills. So, if you guys are buying a pill off of any social media, anything — if it doesn't come from a pharmacy or a doctor, count on it having fentanyl. It has fentanyl. And 60% of those pills contain a lethal amount.
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