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Song for Charlie

By Thomas Bosket
Posted 8/26/22

I recently attended the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America conference and met a group of parents that had started a charity, Song for Charlie, to protect youth from …

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Song for Charlie

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I recently attended the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America conference and met a group of parents that had started a charity, Song for Charlie, to protect youth from the dangers of fentapills - fake pills made of fentanyl. 

I’d like to share their story to support our youth and their families in making the best decisions when they, or someone they know, is potentially facing these situations.

Below is the transcript from their five-minute intro video. Some edits have been made as it’s written not visual.

If you’d like more info, please contact SALT at saltcares.com or me directly at tb363@cornell.edu. 

Song for Charlie 

Song for Charlie is a national family-run nonprofit charity dedicated to raising awareness about ‘fentapills’ — fake pills made of fentanyl. We partner with experts, educators, parents and other influencers to reach the most vulnerable group: young people between the ages 13-30. Our programs highlight the emerging dangers of self-medication and casual drug use in the fentanyl era and encourage healthier strategies for coping with stress.

“You’ve heard about pills killing young people, right? A teenager takes what they thought was a prescription pill and never wakes up.We are not talking about a drug overdose accidental or otherwise, we are talking about being fatally poisoned with a single pill. 

One that looks like a legit xanax, percocet or oxycontin. Except these pills aren’t legit, they are counterfeit, fake, they can kill you within minutes. 

Drug deaths for youth ages 15-24 increased by 52 percent between 2019 and 2020. For 14-18 year olds, deaths grew by 94 percent (Journal of the American Medical Association). Counterfeit pills kill an estimated 5,000 young people annually. 

The fastest growing group of victims is the young and inexperienced. They take pills for different reasons, some of them are experimenting, some are stressed out and self medicating, many victims died at home in their beds after swallowing just one pill. 

Every young person is at risk. 

Thirteen of teens say they’ve misused a prescription drug, or thought about it. Yet 73 percent haven’t heard about the dangers of counterfeit pills.  

So what’s going on? We live in a quick fix pill popping culture and we’ve been taught to trust prescription pills. In some cases these medications are necessary, but they can also cause addiction, that’s why we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic.

So many people in the US became addicted to opioids that drug dealers started making fake pills to meet demand. The active ingredient of choice for these counterfeit pills is fentanyl. 

There is no standard amount of fentanyl in these illegally made pills; they are not prescription medications. The dosage is never even, that’s why they’re so deadly. 

But fentanyl can be cheaply imported and it’s also highly addictive which makes it ideal for creating fake pills. Dealers began creating counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl known as fentapills on a massive scale flooding the US with millions of fakes dressed up to look like the real thing. You can’t tell them apart from prescriptions. 

According to the DEA roughly 40 percent of seized pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. 

Authorities can’t fix this or make it go away but you don’t have to be the next victim. If you don’t know where your pills are coming from don’t take them, don’t believe sellers on Instagram, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, or any app. Don’t believe friends who get pills from supposedly reliable dealers. Don’t believe someone who says a pill has been tested. 

You may have heard of test strips that can detect fentanyl in illegally made drugs but they’re not reliable with pills, where fentanyl can be unevenly distributed. So if a drug comes to you in pill form it hasn’t been tested. Period. Even if you test one pill in a batch, you have no way of knowing if other pills contain fentanyl. 

If it’s not from a doctor or pharmacist, it’s not legit. 

No random pills. 

Now you know the facts. Tell your friends. Tell everyone you know. The more people who learn about fentapills the safer we are all going to be. 

You didn’t create this problem. But you can be part of the solution. Help us spread the word: One Pill Can Kill.”

Thomas Bosket is the SALT Program Manager at Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County. SALT, or Sullivan Allies Leading Together, is a diverse partnership of agencies and community resources committed to working together to improve the quality of life for the residents of Sullivan County. To learn more about Song For Charlie, visit their website at www.songforcharlie.org.

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