In the United States, children are new victims of the fentanyl epidemic

2023-12-27 19:36:34
A memorial at the door of a daycare, after the death of a child and the poisoning of three others, following suspected exposure to fentanyl, on September 21, 2023 in New York. SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

Little Phoenix Castro was only three months old when she was declared dead on the morning of May 13 by rescue workers in San José (California) urgently called by her father. In the kitchen of the apartment, investigators found a mess of glass pipes and various drugs among the baby bottles. An autopsy determined that the baby died of an overdose of methamphetamine and fentanyl. Traces of this synthetic opiate were detected “ all over her floral pajamas,” detailed the investigators.

Read the letter from Washington: Article reserved for our subscribers Fentanyl, the drug that is ravaging the United States

The father, David Castro, 38, already in charge of two other children aged 3 and 4, was indicted in October for child abuse. The mother, Emily De La Creda, 39, couldn’t be. Four months after the death of her baby, she herself died of an overdose of Fentanyl. In the same apartment, San Jose police found the opiate trafficker’s full gear.

With her flowered pajamas, Phoenix Castro has become the emblem of the current phase of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States: one which also affects young children. From Kentucky to Oklahoma, the press has reported examples of children victims of the opioid, even before the age to be able to grab any object or food on their own. In New York, one-year-old Nicholas Dominici died of an overdose at the end of September, while taking a nap at daycare. The fentanyl was stored under a mattress. In Milwaukee (Wisconsin), a 29-year-old mother was charged in mid-November for the death of her 10-month-old granddaughter – the seventh fentanyl-related death of a child under five in this city. Blood tests on her three other children also revealed the presence of fentanyl.

At the end of the 1980s, crack cocaine wreaked havoc among newborns. “Cocaine babies” exposed to the drug in the maternal womb were often born prematurely, and sometimes did not weigh even a kilo. THE « fentanyl babies » die directly from overdoses, without caregivers knowing exactly how they came into contact with the opioid particles present in their surroundings. In 2021, 10 children under the age of five were victims of overdoses in Missouri. In 2022, their number will double.

Increase in use among young people

Despite the sweeping operations of the authorities to arrest the dealers, despite the distribution of Narcan, the drug which helps counter the effect of opioids on the body, despite the diplomatic pressure exerted on China by the Biden administration to curb illegal importation of chemical precursors, end-of-year statistics did not show any improvement in California, the state with the most overdose deaths each year (7,000 in 2022). However, fentanyl seizures have increased by 594%, and the budget devoted to the crisis has reached $1 billion.

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