Family Shares Story Of Losing Their Son To Fentanyl Poisoning
BEAVERTON, Ore. — Counterfeit pills are killing Oregonians. A Beaverton family is sharing the story of losing their son in hopes of saving others.
Last December, after returning home from college for winter break, Jon and Jennifer Epstein found their son Cal unresponsive. They started CPR and called paramedics, but it was too late.
Cal died from fentanyl poisoning. The Sunset High School graduate thought he was buying oxycontin from a drug dealer on Snapchat. What he got was potent and deadly fentanyl.
Sadly, he’s not the only student in the Beaverton School District to die from fentanyl.
Law enforcement agencies are seeing a dramatic increase in fatal drug overdoses. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says with more stringent restrictions to obtain prescription opioids, a significant increase in the demand for easily accessible counterfeit pills has emerged. Health officials warn that people should assume that any pill sold on the street could be fatal.
The Westside Interagency Narcotics Team has seized more than 17,000 suspected counterfeit pills this year. That’s already more than all of last year.
