Texas to treat fentanyl deaths as poisonings
Texas will address fentanyl deaths as poisonings rather than overdoses, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday, an effort to shift blame from users to the Chinese manufacturers and Mexican smugglers of the drug.
The decision to reframe the conversation around the deadly manmade substance followed a roundtable discussion among Abbott, local law enforcement in northern Texas, and parents whose children were killed by fentanyl.
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Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said that changing how the public and law enforcement approach the problem would make a fentanyl-induced death a "full-fledged homicide.”
Virginia Krieger, who lost her 26-year-old daughter to fentanyl poisoning in 2015, said her daughter had not intended to take that particular drug and thought she was taking a prescription pill for back pain.
"The words we use to define this matter, and unfortunately — and this is an insult to a lot of bereaved parents out there, and the media needs to be aware of this — an overdose means that you ingest excessive amounts of a known substance," said Krieger. "When someone gave my daughter a pill that was stamped with the trademarked symbol for Percocet, and it was fentanyl, that was a poison. That was not an overdose. She did not intend to consume fentanyl. That's happening to a lot of our young people, and we keep calling them overdoses, and it's masking what is a poisoning crisis."
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While I agree that it should be considered a homicide, finding and arresting the perps in Mexico and China will be a challenge. It is one that should be pursued for the health and safety of the victims and future ones.
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