Police probe how students got drugs in apparent fentanyl overdose

HARTFORD — Police said they found nearly 40 bags of fentanyl in a Hartford school after three seventhgrade students were hospitalized Thursday.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said Thursday one of the students was in “grave condition” after being taken to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in the city. The condition of the child, who is 13 years old, has not changed, according to Hartford Police Lt. Aaron Boisvert.

Two other students were also taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center after complaining of feeling dizzy. The two students were released from the hospital later that day, police said.

City officials said they believe all three students came into contact with the suspected fentanyl at the same time during a class at the Sport and Medical Sciences Academy. Officials said a teacher witnessed one of the students, who is believed to have ingested the drug, collapse later in gym class.

Officials found nearly 40 bags of fentanyl in two classrooms and the school’s gymnasium.

The substance was in a pure, powder form and wasn’t cut with other drugs, which was confirmed through tests conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The drugs were packaged for street sales with identifying logos, Boisvert said in a press conference Friday.

Police believe the student that is still in the hospital was the one who brought the drugs to the school, Boisvert said.

Law enforcement also conducted a search at the student’s home, but Boisvert could not go into further detail.

The school was closed Friday for decontamination.

In a similar episode just 24 hours later, officials in New Haven said five students at Bishop Woods School, a K-8 magnet school, fell ill and were hospitalized after they ate candy brought in by another student. A district official said New Haven police are investigating what may have been in the candy.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, comprised the largest share of drug overdose deaths in Connecticut between 2015 and 2021, according to state data.

But the data suggests overdoses among young people are exceedingly rare — during that time frame, only one child 14 and younger died from fentanyl or “fentanyl analog,” the figures show. It was also the only overdose death in that age group reported during that time. That’s out of more than 5,200 deaths from drug overdoses reported during the years covered in the report.

Still, the drugs can harm young people more readily than adults because of simple biology.

“Adolescents can be impacted more significantly by opioids in general because they tend to be smaller and have less fat,” said Dr. J. Craig Allen, vice president of addiction services at Hartford HealthCare’s Behavioral Health Network. But that point is “moot” he said when it comes to those who have not previously been exposed to opioids, who have a stronger reaction to the drug.

“Heroin is really potent and can shut down your respiratory drive system and lead to loss of consciousness ... and death. Now that’s heroin — and fentanyl’s 50 times stronger than that at least,” Allen said.

While historically teens and adolescents have sought out experimenting with drugs, “the unfortunate tragic game-changer is that with these super-potent opioids ... that experimentation can be deadly,” he said.

The problem with fentanyl is that it has been infused into all kinds of drugs, Allen said, pointing to recent reports of cannabis found laced with fentanyl, and cases where the substance is passed off as prescription pills using a pill press.