General (5)
Theresa Bass
From:Craig A Durfey <cadurfey@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, January
To:fgozalez@ocsheriff.gov; Don Barnes; seniquez@santa-ana.org; jonathan@ggpd.org;
ggpdpio@ggcity.org; Garden Grove Unified School District; Gmail 2; COB_Response;
Public Comment; Theresa Bass; durfeycraig778@gmail.com
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] NYTimes.com: Fentanyl Tainted Social Media Cause Youth
Drug Deaths to Soar
Attachments:0B6E474EBA7D47369832CEC2776DEC6E.jpg
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01-27-2023
From Craig A Durfey
To whom it may concern.
three news reports with U.S. Congress hearing with Fentanyl Tainted Pills Bought on Social Media Cause Youth Drug
Deaths to Soar!!
Ties with school districts education We partnered with the Beaverton Police Department, the Washington County
Sheriff's Office and the Washington County Public Health Department to raise awareness about the dangers of buying
pills on social media. We posted on the district's and schools' social media accounts. Our middle, high and option school
students received fentanyl-related lessons in their health and advisory classes. Our administrators and staff received
specific fentanyl training. And we engaged in a Community Conversation about the dangers of fentanyl with local
experts and impacted family members.
From The New York Times:
Fentanyl Tainted Pills Bought on Social Media Cause Youth Drug Deaths to Soar
Teenagers and young adults are turning to Snapchat, TikTok and other social media apps to find Percocet, Xanax and
other pills. The vast majority are laced with deadly doses of fentanyl, police say.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/health/pills-fentanyl-social-media.html?smid=em-share
Sent from Mail for Windows
NEW: DEA warns of brightly-colored fentanyl pills used to target kids.
What's Happening
Deaths from fake pills with fentanyl are surging across the country and right here in our own school district. Prior to April
2021, we'd lost several students to fentanyl-related poisonings — teenagers who had hopes and dreams and plans.
These teenagers had families who loved them and are still coming to grips with their losses.
Teens are purchasing what they think are OxyContin, Percoset or Xanax pills via social media, but drug dealers are
making these fake pills with the cheaper, stronger and more deadly synthetic drug called fentanyl to increase their
profits. Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl is
odorless, tasteless and colorless. Teens never know what they’re getting. One pill can kill them. One pill.
The pills are nicknamed “Blues” for their common color (though they can come in other colors) or “M30s” for the stamp
on the pills. The tablets are so well made that even experienced users say that they can’t tell the difference between a
counterfeit pill and a pill manufactured by a pharmaceutical company. To be clear, these are not pharmaceutical-grade
painkillers; they're pills made by drug dealers, mostly outside the country. There is no quality control. Pills in the same
batch can have wildly varying levels of fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl is takes to overdose and die is equivalent to two
grains of sand.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert in December 2020 because of an increase in
synthetic opioids that hit the western United States — and the Interstate 5 corridor, in particular. Learn more about the
regional crisis.
Local investigators point to advertisements on social media platforms like Snapchat. Officials say that young people find
pills especially appealing because they’re cheap, more socially acceptable than meth or heroin and don’t have a tell-tale
smell like alcohol or marijuana.
The Campaign
We partnered with the Beaverton Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Washington
County Public Health Department to raise awareness about the dangers of buying pills on social media. We posted on
the district's and schools' social media accounts. Our middle, high and option school students received fentanyl-related
lessons in their health and advisory classes. Our administrators and staff received specific fentanyl training. And
we engaged in a Community Conversation about the dangers of fentanyl with local experts and impacted family
members.
If you'd like to organize your own campaign and access to our social posts, graphics and logos, email
community_involvement@beaverton.k12.or.us.
How can you help?
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One of the best ways to protect kids from substance abuse is by having regular and open conversations to educate them
about the risks. Listen to them without judgment. Also monitor their social media use. Drugs are often offered by
someone that they know or a stranger that they meet on social media.
Watch for changes in their behavior including:
Irregular eating or sleeping patterns
Low energy
General signs of depression or anxiety
Unusual irritability
Slipping grades
Lack of interest in activities that they once loved
Drastic clothing style changes
If you notice a change, ask about it. Trust your instincts.
https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/communications-community-involvement/fake-and-fatal
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https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/fentanyl-tainted-pills-bought-on-social-media-cause-youth-drug-de
That ignorance is what drove Wendy Thomas, a substitute third-grade
teacher from Sanford, N.C., to repurpose her grief over the 2020 death of
her son from a counterfeit Percocet, and use it to reach teenagers. With her
nonprofit, Matthew’s Voice, she has written health-class curriculums about
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fentanyl for high school freshmen and seventh-graders that are currently
under final review by a large North Carolina school district.
https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/illegal-drug-sales-on-social-media-how-snapchat-is-stepping-up-t
SnapChat, a popular social media platform among young adults and some teenagers, commissioned research from
Morning Consult in response to the growing concerns about social media and drug use. The survey was designed to
understand how young people perceive drugs and fentanyl. Their findings indicated that young adults and teenagers in
the United States today are facing significant mental health challenges, connected to high levels of stress. This isn’t
surprising, given the pandemic and the politically-fueled turmoil that we’ve faced in the last year. Almost 90% of those
surveyed (ages 13 to 24) reported that people their age feel overwhelmed.
The study also found that young people are seeking coping strategies for their stress, and many are turning to drug
abuse. About 1 in 5 Gen Zers have thought about abusing prescription drugs, and 84% agree that “coping with stress and
anxiety” is a key reason people use drugs. Unfortunately, young people also lack resources and education about the
dangers of drug abuse and specifically, the deadliness of fentanyl and its presence in common drugs of choice. Nearly 1
in 4 youth said they did not have enough information about fentanyl to know how dangerous it is.
Snapchat’s role in fentanyl crisis probed during House roundtable
Snapchat’s role in fentanyl crisis probed during House roundtable: ‘It’s a
Snap-specific problem.’
House lawmakers considered the role of social media, and specifically Snap-owned Snapchat,
in propagating the fentanyl poisoning crisis in a roundtable Wednesday.
The event in the House Energy and Commerce Committee could set the stage for new
proposals to protect kids on the internet or limit the liability protections for online platforms.
The committee’s new Republican leader Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has
indicated that under her stewardship, the panel will seek to significantly narrow liability
protections for tech platforms and in the past she’s expressed interest in protections for kids
online.
https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/snapchat%E2%80%99s-role-in-fentanyl-crisis-probed-during-house-
roundtable
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Social media's effects on teen mental health comes into focus.
Experts are increasingly warning of a connection between heavy
social media use and mental health issues in children — a hot topic
now driving major lawsuits against tech giants.
Why it matters: Seattle Public Schools' recently filed lawsuit against TikTok,
Meta, Snap and others — which accuses the social media giants of
contributing to a youth mental health crisis — is one of hundreds of similar
cases.
Driving the news: Some scientists who study technology's effects on
children say the negatives far outweigh any positives.
"There is a substantial link to depression, and that link tends to be stronger among girls," Jean Twenge, a
psychology professor at San Diego State University and leading expert on the subject, tells Axios.
"The more time the teen, particularly a teen girl, spends using social media, the more likely it is that she will be
depressed," said Twenge, whose book "iGen" describes how technology has shaped Gen Z.
The same is true for self-harm, Twenge said. "The more hours a day she spends using social media, the more
likely she is to engage in self-harm behaviors — the link is there for boys as well, it's just not as large."
Backstory: In a landmark ruling in October, a British authority found Meta-
owned Instagram culpable for the suicide of 14-year-old Molly Russell after
she was exposed to self-harm content on the platform.
During the inquest, executives from Meta and Pinterest apologized for the content Molly saw.
The coroner requested that those companies and others take various actions to prevent future deaths, including
setting up separate platforms for children and adults.
Where it stands: Twenge and Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New
York University, maintain a 256-page Google doc of all published articles
about social media and mental health.
It's meant to shed light on the question: "Does social media use contribute to the rise of adolescent mood disorders
(depression and anxiety) and related behaviors (especially self-harm and suicide) that began around 2012/2013?"
It paints a picture of TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. as addictive platforms that make people unhappier the more time
they spend on them.
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"Most of the large studies show that heavy users of social media are about twice as likely to be depressed as light
users," says Twenge, whose forthcoming book, "Generations," describes the differences among the six current
generations of Americans.
While some kids could be spending time on social media because they're depressed to begin with, most studies make
efforts to control for such factors and variables, Twenge said.
How it works: Social media can harm children emotionally and
psychologically in several ways.
Social comparison is when everybody else's life looks more glamorous online — they're invited to cooler
parties or look better in a bikini (whether or not the photo has been retouched).
Displacement occurs when kids spend so much time online that they don't get enough sleep or hang out with
family and friends.
Algorithms can prod children toward unhealthy content about eating disorders and the like.
Pornography is reaching kids on social media at younger ages, according to the nonprofit Common Sense
Media.
Between the lines: Specialized legal and health care practices are springing
up to support children harmed by social media (and their parents).
Seattle's Social Media Victims Law Center sues on behalf of kids who have been injured or killed through viral
stunts like the TikTok "blackout challenge" or by buying fentanyl-laced pills on Snapchat, said Matthew
Bergman, founding attorney.
"Most kids that encounter social media don't have adverse mental health instances, but a very, very significant
percentage do," Bergman tells Axios.
Yes, but: Social media's benefits can include "connecting meaningfully with
friends and family, learning a new skill, or accessing health care," per a
2021 report from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (which also
highlighted many of the negative effects listed above).
For LGBTQ+ youth, social platforms are important "for feeling less alone, expressing themselves, finding inspiration,
and getting support."
The bottom line: Experts have proposed solutions that tech companies say
they're trying to implement — such as more stringent age verification — as
well as more radical ones, such as turning off children's access to social
platforms at night.
Yet — as anyone who's ever been a teenager knows — it's easy enough to sidestep the controls that grownups try to
place on you.
If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or
chat with someone at 988lifeline.org. En Español.
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https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/social-medias-effects-on-teen-mental-health-comes-into-focus
Song for Charlie dedicated to raising awareness about ‘fentapills
https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/song-for-charlie-dedicated-to-raising-awareness-about-
%E2%80%98fentapills
I hope this will began the awareness to limit the consumption of screentime with blue light CA SCR 73 2019 to protect
their eyes.
Proved alternative activity’s that will assist with isolation, tobacco addiction from screentime. CA State AB 24 civic
education 2017 to
Hope Squad https://hopesquad.com/ and screenagersmovie.com https://www.screenagersmovie.com/ with
savethekids.org https://www.savethekids.org/#home , CA SB-224 Pupil instruction: mental health education All Schools.
https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/ca-sb-224-pupil-instruction-mental-health-education-all-schools , CDPH
Begins $100 Million Youth Behavioral Health Stigma Reduction https://socialemotionalpaws.com/blog-post-1/f/cdph-
begins-100-million-youth-behavioral-health-stigma-reduction .
Thank You
Craig A Durfey
Founder of P.R.D.D.C.
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