Oh, sweet darlings of Pittsburgh, it breaks our hearts to learn that children under 14 years are succumbing to fentanyl poisoning at a chilling pace. Picture this: an innocent little one’s life snuffed out by the lethal opioid, and now the authorities are pondering whether to hold anyone responsible.
Following the tragic loss, a GoFundMe sprouted up to lend a helping hand to the heartbroken parents, Mercedes Williams and Barington Bogle Jr., as they grapple with the unforeseen financial weight of laying their precious one to rest. It’s a devastating blow, not only tearing at their hearts and minds but also tugging at their purse strings.
Here’s the kicker, folks: Families Against Fentanyl (FAF), a nonprofit, recently dished out some hard-hitting stats from the CDC, spotlighting that the wee ones under 14 years are dropping like flies from fentanyl faster than any other age group. The cold truth? Between 2019 and 2021, infant fentanyl death rates doubled, and the grim reaper visited our toddlers between 1 and 4 years old over thrice as often.
And, lo and behold, it doesn’t end there. The sorrowful tale stretches to older kiddos too, as fentanyl deaths among children aged 5 to 14 quadrupled between 2019 and 2021. The FAF’s findings are a wake-up call we can’t afford to snooze through. We must leap into action to tackle the opioid nightmare.
The CDC lets us in on a harrowing fact: over 150 souls leave this world each day due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. This mounting body count is a crisis rocking our nation to its core, and it’s high time our lawmakers and decision-makers join forces to battle this epidemic.
It’s a cruel world where the loss of innocent cherubs to fentanyl poisoning rips through our communities. We can’t sit idly by; we must rise as one to avert further heartache and shield the lives of those yet to bloom.
Sources: Scallywagandvagabond, Dailymail, GoFundMe