SAN ANTONIO – Fentanyl poisonings have law enforcement and devastated community members on high alert.
On Monday, three teenagers in Kyle, Texas, were poisoned by fentanyl-laced pills.
One teenager died, and two are still in comas in a hospital. On Wednesday, Kyle Police confirmed that those two teenagers had been released from the hospital.
Rewind to last week, a 34-year-old San Antonio man almost died of fentanyl poisoning.
“It’s a public health crisis,” said San Antonio mother Kathy Drago, who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning over two years ago.
Drago is close friends with the woman whose son was poisoned last week on Oct. 12.
“A dear, dear friend of mine,” Drago said.
That man barely survived and was hospitalized for 11 days.
Sadly, that’s a better outcome than what happened on Monday in Kyle, where one teenager died and two others were hospitalized.
The Kyle Police Department said the teenagers took blue pills with an “M” on one side and a “30″ on the other, which were all laced with fentanyl.
“They’re calling them perc 30s. They’re supposed to be Percocet. They actually look more like oxycodone, and I think that both of those companies have changed the look of the drugs because of these counterfeits out there,” said San Antonio mother Christina Villagrana, who also lost her son to fentanyl poisoning over two years ago.
Villagrana keeps up with these batches so she can keep the community aware.
“It’s just like a gut punch because I can bring myself back to that day and imagine what these mothers and fathers are going through. It’s horrible. And I just don’t want this to keep happening,” Villagrana said.
Cases like these led Drago and Villgrana to form an advocacy organization and the first-ever Fentanyl Awareness Walk in Texas, Soles Walking 4 Souls.
The organization’s mission is now to educate people, often with urgency.
“We had to get this out there immediately because there’s obviously a batch out there that is in San Antonio and is also in Kyle and Hays County,” Drago said.
The mothers work closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA for the One Pill Can Kill campaign, and they’ve learned these poisonings typically come in waves.
“We rarely hear of a wave coming through when one person is poisoned. It’s typically at least five or more. And the last time this happened, it happened in Austin when we lost 11 people in 36 hours,” Drago said.
The mothers have also learned that fentanyl is in almost every other type of drug out there.
“The DEA has been testing the pills. Seven out of ten are lethal, and 99% are fentanyl. There’s pretty much nothing out there that is a real pill. It’s all fake,” Villagrana said.
Drago, Villagrana, and the other “Angel Moms” who have lost kids are taking this information and teaching kids the truth in age-appropriate presentations.
“We’re partnering with the DEA Thursday to go into eight middle schools,” Drago said.
Though Drago knows middle school sounds young, law enforcement and families know it’s still necessary.
“It’s a conversation we have to have. We know parents that have lost 14, 15-year-old kids,” Drago said.
Drago begs parents to have the tough talk with their kids.
“We need to stop this. I’m trying to save those children. I’m trying to save their lives, and we’re trying to get ahead of it,” Villagrana said in tears.
“Please have the conversations with your kids. You cannot risk this. If they don’t think that it can happen to them, I’m here to tell you it can happen to them, and you cannot experiment at all,” Drago said.
Any school, church, business, or organization that would like a Fentanyl Awareness presentation from the Angel Moms and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office can contact Soles Walking 4 Souls on their website, or you can text or call Kathy Drago at (210) 535-4502.
Soles Walking 4 Souls provides free Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of poisoning from fentanyl or other opioids.