Slay the Dragon in Your Neighborhood

Fentanyl. We hear new tragic stories of Fentanyl every day. While Fentanyl is a valuable medicine in the carefully regulated and monitored healthcare setting, it has a deadly track record on the streets. Nowhere is this more heartbreaking than when discussing the damage done to our children. Overdoses at middle school, high school, and college campuses fill every parent —every decent person — with disgust and dread.

Not even two years ago, I wrote of an interaction I had with a fifth-grade class as part of an outreach program, discussing their hopes, dreams, and the dangers of drugs. (You can read that piece in the Denton Record-Chronicle here.) I was amazed at the children’s street smarts. They could reel off not only the names of the drugs – street names – and they spoke with authority about the effects of the drugs on the body.

That 90 minutes was a master’s class in drug culture taught by 10-year-olds. I have often recalled that session because of one young boy who nonchalantly spoke about “Birria,” slang for… Read More