Editorial: Spreading the word about the insidious danger of ‘fentapills’

A Ross family’s initiative to educate and warn teens and young adults about the risks of abusing prescription and counterfeit drugs could save lives and other families from the tragedy they have endured.

Seventeen-year-old Avery Kalafatas lost her cousin who had taken a pill given to him  by a friend. The 18-year-old cousin thought he was taking Percocet, but instead swallowed a fake prescription pill laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has contributed to a rise in drug overdose deaths in Marin.

In 2021, there were 62 reported overdose deaths reported in Marin. That’s more than twice the number reported in 2018 and, according to officials, at least half have involved fentanyl, which killed Kalafatas’ cousin within minutes.

Her family has formed a nonprofit – Project1Life.org – to educate others about the risk of taking so-called “fentapills,” black market drugs made to look like prescription pills, but are laced with a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl.

Fentapills have been linked to the deaths of about 10,000 Americans, who died after taking a pill that they believed was prescription medicine.

It is risky enough to be taking prescription drugs without a doctor’s authorization, but that real risk grows exponentially worse when taking black market drugs where the dosages and contents could kill you in minutes.

One little pill can kill you.

Yes, the risk is terrifying.

Nobody should take a pill without a prescription and that definitely includes well-educated teens who should know better. Trusting their lives to the shape and color of the pill, its imprint and the person who handed it to them isn’t smart.

Today’s reality is the best way to know what you are taking is a prescription filled for you by a pharmacist – a licensed safeguard.

Letting others know about the significant risk of fentapills will save lives. The Kalafatas family joins others who have suffered similar tragedies and have taken to social media outlets to spread the word – a warning.

Kalafatas’ uncle, Brennan Mullin – the father of the victim – is on the board of SongforCharlie.org, another organization that is also trying to spread the word to youth and adults.

Its founder, Ed Ternin, lost his son to a fentapill.

He says the goal is to make the majority of people, from college age to 25, aware of the risk.

“This is not a story of ‘don’t do drugs,’” Ternin said. “It’s a story of: Bottom line, do not take any pill that you receive from somebody – unless it’s a prescription from a doctor.”

Kalafatas’ nonprofits have signed up volunteers to serve as “ambassadors” to write and speak about the risk. Hearing the message from other teens or young adults could only help others to make the right decisions.

Toward that same goal, Marin Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke and Dr. Matthew Willis, the county’s public health director, sent letters to graduating seniors and their families in hopes of increasing awareness about the risk of fentapills.

Opening eyes and minds to this growing risk will help save lives and save families from tragedies like that which Kalafatas and others have to endure.