Two alarming studies show more deadly drug overdoses are claiming the lives of young children. In some situations, the victims can be as young as infants.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said it does not take a lot of fentanyl to kill someone.
If you ingest 2 milligrams, that can be deadly. That’s enough to fit right on the tip of a pencil.
Children under 5 years old are increasingly becoming victims of opioid overdoses, according to a recent study from The Journal of Pediatrics.
Nationwide, 731 children 5 and under died from poisonings between 2005 and 2018. The highest number of those poisonings were from opioids.
Of all the children who died, more than two-fifths were infants, less than a year old.
More than 65% of the deaths happened at the child’s home.
In Jacksonville, two people have been arrested and face manslaughter charges after a 20-month-old girl died of a fentanyl overdose inside an apartment on the Eastside in December.
In South Florida, a family is suing the owner of an Airbnb vacation rental after a 19-month-old girl died of a fentanyl overdose. The girl’s family just filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the rental company claiming it did not clean the home properly after previous tenants used drugs during a party. The girl was exposed to those drugs unknowingly.
The previous renters are also included in the suit. They’ve said they did have drugs in the home, but not fentanyl.
Mike Dubet, who is a special agent in charge of the DEA Jacksonville office, said this trend is concerning.
“I would consider it like someone leaving a handgun around children,” Dubet said. “Just leaving a loaded weapon laying around. If you leave drugs around your children, specifically drugs that may contain fentanyl, it can end deadly.”
Between 2019 and 2021, fentanyl deaths tripled for kids 1 to 4, and they quadrupled for kids 5 to 14 years old, according to the CDC.
The co-author of the study from The Journal of Pediatrics said two different committees for the US Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously last month to make Narcan nasal spray accessible over-the-counter. Narcan can reverse an overdose.
The FDA commissioner is considering that recommendation and can make a decision soon.