“Anytime there is something that could potentially cause harm to our students, our staff or even our community, it’s alarming,” said John Graham, LISD assistant superintendent of campus activities and support. “We keep up with what’s going on in the area to make sure we are prepared and ready to be proactive in our measures to help keep our students safe.”
LISD has a number of initiatives related to fentanyl overdose prevention and education, including stocking Narcan—a medication used to reverse overdoses—on all campuses as of the end of last school year, conducting a drug and alcohol awareness program, and partnering with law enforcement.
Law enforcement seizures of pills containing illicit fentanyl increased by 3,224% between January 2018 and December 2021, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. In 2018, law enforcement seized 290,304 pills containing fentanyl. That number rose to 9.6 million in 2021, according to the NIDA.
Though fentanyl is not new to the Cedar Park and Leander police departments, both agencies are continuing to monitor cases involving the drug closely while also using local partnerships to help inform residents.
“We take [fentanyl] very serious,” said Justin Miller, Cedar Park Police Department sergeant. “You can just see the numbers of arrests we made to show we’re doing everything we can to prevent this from hitting the streets.”
A potent counterfeit drug
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used for pain management, prescribed by doctors for severe pain and advanced-stage cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the drug has been created illicitly in pill-pressing laboratories.
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the CDC. Two milligrams is the lethal dose of the drug, which is a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the U.S.
The drug makes its way into the country through smuggling across the Canadian and Mexican borders, Miller said. He said counterfeit fentanyl is relatively inexpensive to make, very inexpensive to buy in bulk, and distributors make more money selling fentanyl than other street drugs.
Fake 30 milligram Percocet pills—round blue pills with the imprint “M 30” on them—are the most common form of the drug, Leander Police Department Sgt. John Vann said. The LPD has also seen, in small quantities, Alprazolam/Xanax, cocaine and powder heroin containing the drug.
“Due to the nature of the source of the pills, you never know how much fentanyl is contained in a specific pill or how your body will react to it,” Vann said. “It is possible for as little as half a pill to be fatal the very first time you take one.”
He said there have been several instances of residents, typically people in their late teens and early 20s, taking what appears to be 30 milligram Percocet pills—a pain killer—and overdosing.
Symptoms of a fentanyl overdose include unconsciousness, vomiting, slow or shallow breathing, pale skin, small pupils, and purple lips and fingernails, said Jessica Cance, a senior research public health analyst, at LISD’s Sept. 27 Safety, Security, Health and Wellness Summit. To overdose, the drug must enter mucous membranes or the bloodstream. She said there have been no verified cases of breathing in or touching a pill causing an overdose.
Fentanyl is the No. 1 leading cause of death in people ages 18-45, and 99% of overdoses are accidental, according to the Texas National Gaurd.
“Most individuals who suffer a fentanyl-related death probably did not know they were ingesting the deadly drug,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a Sept. 21 press conference about increased fentanyl activity.
Protecting the community
The Leander and Cedar Park police departments have monitored fentanyl-related activity since early 2020.
During 2020 and 2021, Vann said the LPD responded to approximately 20 fentanyl overdose reports. Five of those 20 overdoses resulted in death, and in at least one instance, the fatal case was someone who had previously overdosed and survived.
The CPPD has encountered fentanyl 200-300 times over the last three years, Miller said. Since 2020, there have been about 50 overdoses in Cedar Park, 13 of which were fatal.
“We’ve seen so many serious events,” Miller said, citing an incident where three different individuals split a pill containing fentanyl that led to overdoses and one of them dying.
Miller said there is a lesser consequence for people caught using fentanyl illegally. Instead, he said law enforcement’s focus is on finding the drug’s source and distributors.
When law enforcement receives a report of fentanyl-related activity, they respond to the scene and speak with residents involved. After acquiring information, an investigation into the source or distributor begins.
A case involving distribution of fentanyl warrants a federal investigation, and the offender is looking at anywhere from a 20-year sentence to life in prison, Miller said.
“Trying to prevent the deaths, trying to prevent overdose deaths—that’s our first focus,” he said. “Then, [we are] doing everything we can to dismantle the organizations that are bringing the pills in and distributing them here in Cedar Park and around the region.”
Since 2020, Vann said the LPD has worked directly with the Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Austin and San Marcos police departments along with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Drug Enforcement Administration on cases involving fentanyl sales—and will continue to do so in the future.
The LPD and the CPPD have also partnered with LISD to regulate fentanyl-related activities throughout the school district. The police departments work to help spread awareness about fentanyl and provide enforcement if the drug makes its way on campuses.
Cance said risk factors associated with substance misuse among adolescents and young adults include early initiation, genetic susceptibility, peer substance use, family conflict and family history of substance use, based on a study by the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General in 2017.
“The biggest concern is that it is largely being pushed on [teenagers] who do not have enough life experience to truly understand what they are getting into,” Vann said.
Educating students and parents
Because of the rise in fentanyl overdoses among school-age children—including those in Hays CISD—LISD has implemented preventative measures to keep the drug off its campuses.
Within the last six months, Miller said one student overdosed at a Cedar Park high school. Miller said the student survived, and the CPPD took the distributor into custody.
“It’s concerning, because such a little amount can be very deadly,” Graham said. “But we have done some things proactively to be prepared if something does occur in one of our schools.”
At the end of last school year, LISD introduced Narcan onto elementary, middle and high school campuses. Naloxone, often referred to by its brand name, Narcan, is a nasal spray or injectable medication used to reverse an opioid overdose, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. School nurses and law enforcement carry the medication.
LISD has also worked on other awareness initiatives—such as informative videos—making sure parents and students are informed.
Since drugs can be introduced to children at an early age, LISD Counseling Services educates all students on drug-related matters, and conversations are tailored to the appropriate developmental age, Director of Counseling Services Steve Clark said.
Graham said high school students are more of a concern for fentanyl exposure, because they have more freedom and access to harmful substances. But, he said middle school students are also a concern because of their maturity levels and decision-making capabilities.
Area agencies are continuing to work together to educate the community about fentanyl and how to manage its spread, officials said.
“We have to continue to have these conversations at home, ... in your places of worship [and] ... in schools,” Clark said. “We are doing our portion to address it, but we want everyone to address it.”
