A shocking study, published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, looked at the number of American children who survived fentanyl poisoning. The study is one of only a few of its kind, as most prior studies considered the number of deaths.
The statistics were terrifying.
When researchers looked at nonfatal fentanyl poisonings, they found evidence of a shocking growth in children’s near-death exposure to the drug.
Between 2015 and 2023, the number of cases involving children under the age of 12 leapt by nearly 1,000 percent.
Forty-one percent of cases involved children 12 or younger.
“What does it say about a society that cannot protect its children from the ravages of this opioid and drug crisis?”
“Pediatric exposures to fentanyl are increasing and over one-third of cases are unintentional and/or had documented life-threatening effects,” the study states.
Contacting poison control centers in 49 states and analyzing 3,009 cases, researchers discovered that the majority of children 12 or younger who survived fentanyl exposure were exposed unintentionally by coming into accidental contact with fentanyl in their homes.
That means that parents or others—usually fentanyl users themselves—were leaving traces of the lethal drug lying around where children could inhale or ingest it.
One of the researchers, Dr. Joseph Palamar, from the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York, warned: “Children may touch or ingest such items out of curiosity, through a lack of a sense of danger or even imitation of a parent who uses. Even used fentanyl patches can lead to accidental or intentional poisonings among pediatric populations.”
“Parents and others, too, need to be careful not to leave fentanyl, whether licit or illicit, out in the open around unsupervised children,” he added. “Even second-hand exposure to paraphernalia or baggies can contain small amounts of fentanyl and can be lethal to youngsters.”
Other studies found the same horrible results: Kids stumbling upon—and being poisoned by—murderous fentanyl.
Between 2018 and 2021, one study found that adolescent deaths from fentanyl increased nearly threefold. Deaths of children under five, on the other hand, increased by nearly six times.
In 2024, little Joseph Adonis, just 14 months old, died from ingesting fentanyl, cocaine and heroin, left out by his addicted parents. His father, Wilkens Adonis, was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison.
“An infinitesimally small amount of this poison can come in contact with a child and result in that child’s death,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine, for his part, expressed his outrage: “What does it say about a society that cannot protect its children from the ravages of this opioid and drug crisis?”
In September 2023, little Nicholas Feliz Dominici, just one year old, was playing at the Divino Niño Day Care center in New York when he and three friends suddenly became ill. An ambulance was called. Narcan, which counteracts opioid poisoning, was administered. Three survived, but little Nicholas did not. The day care center was actually a front for a fentanyl packaging and sales operation.
The two people running the center received 45-year sentences, but little Nicholas was sentenced to death.
Fentanyl’s lethal use has become so widespread that experts are advising that everyone—even nonusers—keep Narcan in their homes and learn how to use it. The threat of a fentanyl overdose, even in nonuse homes, can be as close as next door.
But there is a much better answer—one that could rid our society of fentanyl use forever.
The study states: “Results suggest that prevention, education and harm reduction efforts are needed for pediatric populations,” adding that “education is needed for those using illicitly manufactured opioids to keep them out of reach from children.”
But how about education to keep people from using fentanyl in the first place?
Eradicating the murderous effects of fentanyl and every other drug like it is the sworn mission of a very special initiative—the Church of Scientology-sponsored Truth About Drugs, which provides the straight, hard-hitting facts about the devastation wrought by addiction. With over 160 million educational booklets distributed, more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies have used and praised the program, and it has inspired hundreds of thousands of youth to swear off illicit drugs for good, saving untold lives.
In other words, the Truth About Drugs gets results.
To keep our children from becoming casualties, and thereby protect our future, we need strong weapons in the fight against fentanyl.
Let’s stop wasting time, step up and start doing what works.
