A single fraudulent pill can contain a fatal dose of the drug fentanyl – the opioid that has led to more than 70,000 fatal overdoses.
David and Kate Gibbons received the worst news imaginable when police came to their door to say their 19-year-old daughter had died of an overdose after taking just one pill that she thought was the powerful painkiller Percocet.
Tragically, the pill, purchased by a friend via social media, was in fact pure fentanyl. Just two milligrams of the deadly drug – equivalent to about 15 grains of table salt – is a lethal dose.
The New York family said their daughter was not a drug user and rarely, if ever, got into trouble with her parents or the police.
Taking the pill was a mistake, Kate and David said, that cost her life.
Paige Gibbons Trusted the Person Who Provided Her and Her Friends with the Fake Percocet, Which Was Actually All Fentanyl
Her parents, pictured left and third from left, said their daughter was not one to use drugs or get into trouble. Rather, it was a single mistake that ruined their lives
Paige, a student at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, dreamed of becoming a doctor. She even took the initiative to teach life-saving CPR to the girls at her high school, using her own money to buy female pacifiers.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2022, she visited a friend’s house, where the group decided to try a hit of what they thought was Percocet.
Percocet is a painkiller composed of the opioid oxycodone and acetaminophen, in Tylenol, and is known for its addictive properties.
Most patients who are prescribed the drug use it for aching pain after an injury or surgery.
But an estimated 25 percent of those who receive chronic pain treatment with a prescription opioid become addicted to their medication.
The drug is also used recreationally, as it produces a euphoric high, similar to heroin. Because it can be prescribed, it is common for teens to assume the pills are safe.
Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons said they wanted to share their daughter’s story because thousands of parents have had to go through this, given the extent to which fentanyl has contaminated the illegal drug supply in the US.
Mrs. Gibbons told it Fox news: ‘I can’t believe we’re still hearing from people who are in exactly the same situation.
“I want to shout it from the mountain tops and make sure everyone knows: Expect it to happen to you; expect to die if you try this.”
Mr Gibbons added: ‘It doesn’t discriminate. Socio-economic, race, religion. If you take a pill, there’s a chance you’ll die that night.’
One of the friends almost died, while the third didn’t take the pill and “witnessed one of the worst things a teenager could experience in their life,” Mr Gibbons said.
The rise in deaths is caused by fentanyl, which provides a more intense high but is fatal even in small doses
In 2023, more than 6,000 New Yorkers died from a fentanyl overdose. The drug naloxone is very effective in reversing an overdose.
Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, the coordinator of New York’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), said: “We know with the internet and social media that children can get what they think are real pills, but who knows where they are made or where they come from. where do they come from and what is in them?
“Fentanyl ends up in these pills and that can be fatal.”
Paramedics and Good Samaritans who encounter people who are overdosing and administering Naloxone – a life-saving drug that treats the effects of an overdose – are increasingly finding that it doesn’t always work.
This is because drug officials are increasingly playing a game of whack-a-mole with new drugs appearing in the illegal drug supply.
The latest are animal tranquilizers, including xylazine and medetomidine.
Nationally, a growing number of overdoses involving these drugs have occurred.
The two drugs also restrict blood vessels, preventing oxygenated blood from reaching skin tissues, resulting in the death of skin tissue and the formation of abscesses. Some of them require amputation to stop the necrosis or rotting of the flesh.
Although there is no evidence that the pill Ms. Gibbons took contained a sedative, there are many pills in circulation.
A CDC report found that there were a record 107,941 overdose deaths in 2022, which is the most recent data available — the equivalent of 295 fatalities per day and a one percent increase from the previous year.
Fentanyl was responsible for nearly 70 percent of fatalities.
Broken down by age, researchers also recorded an increase of up to six percent in overdose deaths among those over 35, while this fell among younger age groups.
The increase was greatest among people aged 55 to 64, where it rose from 45.3 to 48.1 overdose deaths per 100,000 people.
By comparison, among those aged 25 to 34, overdose deaths fell by almost five percent to 50.6 over the same period.