Millions in opioid funds sit unspent as toll only grows
When 23-yearold William Magee drew his last breath, he was a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi, where he was enrolled in the Honors College, had lettered in track and was plotting his future as a lawyer.
His father, David Magee, found his body on his apartment floor, dead from an opioid overdose of something that probably was or included fentanyl, a relatively little-understood drug at the time.
That was 11 years ago. William had been in and out of rehab before losing his battle with addiction. Handsome and fit, he bore no resemblance to the stereotypical drug addict. Yet he was buying fentanyl directly from China, a fact his father was shocked to learn.
“We were on the bleeding edge of the fentanyl epidemic,” said David Magee when he spoke to me by phone from Oxford, Mississippi. After William’s death, his father founded the William Magee Center for AOD and Wellness Education there, as well as the William Magee Institute for education, research and support.
William wasn’t very different from other college-aged recreational drug users. But most kids aren’t looking for fentanyl, said Magee. They know it’s a killer. But when they go online to the world’s largest drug marketplace — social media — and order their preferred weekend high, they have no idea what they’re getting. The result isn’t overdosing so much as it’s poisoning. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is lethal to most people, depending on their size, weight and prior exposure.
Most fentanyl is manufactured in China, then sold to Mexican drug cartels that put it into pills that look identical to prescription pharmaceuticals such as Adderall, Percocet or Xanax. Cocaine is also increasingly sprinkled with fentanyl, which is 50 times as potent as heroin and 100 times as strong as morphine. It is also highly addictive.
Today, fentanyl is a leading cause of death among young Americans, and it and other synthetic opioids are involved in 70% of drug-overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not all victims are college-age kids like William. Children as young as 10 are dying, too. Monthly overdose deaths among young people 10 to 19 rose 109% from 2019 to 2021. Ninety percent involved opioids and 84%, fentanyl.
The Drug Enforcement Administration found that 6 in 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription drugs contain potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. China, it appears, has found another way besides TikTok to hurt America’s children.
Though these statistics paint a grim picture, there is hope in the form of another drug that can reverse an opioid overdose. Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, attaches to receptors in the brain and blocks the opioid’s effects. As long as the victim is still breathing, Narcan can be effectively administered. A nearly dead person can abruptly be brought back from the brink to rejoin the living.
If someone carrying Narcan had been with William Magee when he lay dying, he might be a lawyer today with a family of his own. The CDC found that, in about 40% of overdose deaths, bystanders are present and could save lives.
I wondered where the mothers’ groups against opioids were and found several variations online. If they’re looking for a new strategy, they should make their way to state capitals and city halls to insist that money from the $50 billion-plus national opioid settlement be used to underwrite Narcan distribution.
Since 2022, when the settlement money began to be disbursed, states and local governments have received more than $3 billion combined. Payments will continue through 2038, by which time one might hope for an end to the epidemic that has ravaged our young people. I think I don’t know anyone who is using opioids recreationally, but I could be wrong. Most people in Oxford or Nashville, where William Magee was living when he died, wouldn’t have thought he was, either.
I plan to buy a $45 twodose box of the antidote to keep in my glove compartment, just in case. Maybe you should, too.