EchaSez
Hope is the thing with feathers.
Prosecutors believe a 10-year-old boy is one of the youngest victims of the opioid crisis raging through Florida and other parts of the country.
Alton Banks returned home from a neighborhood outing at the local pool on June 23 and started vomiting. Family members later discovered him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Miami Herald reported.
According to a preliminary toxicology report, the fifth grader, who had dreams of becoming an engineer, had fentanyl in his system when he collapsed and died in his Florida home.
Health officials warn fentanyl, and other synthetic forms of the drug, can be so powerful that just inhaling or touching a small speck can be fatal. Detectives are still working to connect the dots of his final day and figure out where exactly he was exposed to the fatal drug.
Ohio police officer touches fentanyl on shirt, overdoses
“He was out playing, like we want all our children to do,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. “We’re anxiously hoping that someone comes forward to help us solve this horrific death.”
Rundle explained she spoke out on the case due to a need for tips regarding how the boy came in contact with drug. Detectives said there’s no evidence it was at his home and suspect he may have been exposed on his walk home in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, an area struggling with the opioid epidemic.
Prosecutors believe Alton Banks is among the many unsuspecting victims of fentanyl, which reared its head in Florida after a crackdown on painkillers like Oxycodone prompted a spike in heroin and opioid abuse, according to the Herald.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office is still completing tests in the young boy’s death, and a final report is pending. The Medical Examiner told the newspaper there were nearly 300 overdose deaths related to fentanyl last year, of those only nine were under the age of 18.
While fentanyl is a legal painkiller — typically prescribed as a patch — legislators have taken swift steps to stymie efforts of those looking to trade it illegally.
Florida law calls for stiff minimum mandatory sentences for dealers caught with four grams or more of fentanyl, and a recent law will make it possible to charge dealers with murder if they shill out a fatal dose of the drug.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ngest-victims-opioid-crisis-article-1.3334944
Alton Banks returned home from a neighborhood outing at the local pool on June 23 and started vomiting. Family members later discovered him unconscious and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Miami Herald reported.
According to a preliminary toxicology report, the fifth grader, who had dreams of becoming an engineer, had fentanyl in his system when he collapsed and died in his Florida home.
Health officials warn fentanyl, and other synthetic forms of the drug, can be so powerful that just inhaling or touching a small speck can be fatal. Detectives are still working to connect the dots of his final day and figure out where exactly he was exposed to the fatal drug.
Ohio police officer touches fentanyl on shirt, overdoses
“He was out playing, like we want all our children to do,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. “We’re anxiously hoping that someone comes forward to help us solve this horrific death.”
Rundle explained she spoke out on the case due to a need for tips regarding how the boy came in contact with drug. Detectives said there’s no evidence it was at his home and suspect he may have been exposed on his walk home in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, an area struggling with the opioid epidemic.
Prosecutors believe Alton Banks is among the many unsuspecting victims of fentanyl, which reared its head in Florida after a crackdown on painkillers like Oxycodone prompted a spike in heroin and opioid abuse, according to the Herald.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office is still completing tests in the young boy’s death, and a final report is pending. The Medical Examiner told the newspaper there were nearly 300 overdose deaths related to fentanyl last year, of those only nine were under the age of 18.
While fentanyl is a legal painkiller — typically prescribed as a patch — legislators have taken swift steps to stymie efforts of those looking to trade it illegally.
Florida law calls for stiff minimum mandatory sentences for dealers caught with four grams or more of fentanyl, and a recent law will make it possible to charge dealers with murder if they shill out a fatal dose of the drug.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ngest-victims-opioid-crisis-article-1.3334944