Moody warns dangers of fentanyl as new study finds children under 14 dying at alarming rate

TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – A new study showed that children under the age of 14 are dying faster than any other age group due to fentanyl. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody warned parents of the dangers of the illicit drugs.

The study conducted by Families Against Fentanyl states:

• Synthetic opioid (fentanyl) fatalities among children are rising faster than any other age group. 
• In just two years, synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths among children ages 1 to 4 more than tripled, and increased four fold among infants less than one, and children ages 5 to 14.
• Since 2015, deaths among infants increased nearly 10 fold; among children ages 1 to 14 deaths increased 15 fold: an increase of more than 1400 percent.

“This is disturbing news, and as the mother of a school-aged child, I want to make sure every family is engaging in an open dialog about the dangers posed by massive amounts of illicit drugs flooding into our country,” Moody said. “We have known for a while about the skyrocketing fentanyl deaths among young adults—and we suspected it was having a growing impact on small children, but this report confirms the urgent public-safety risks all parents are now facing when trying to protect their children from this deadly synthetic poison flooding into our country from Mexico.”

There are also reports of high school students having complications from vapes that were possibly laced with fentanyl. Moody is urging Floridians to never use illicit drugs and is sharing the Fast Facts on Fentanyl Toolkit to help parents talk to their children about fentanyl.

The Fast Facts on Fentanyl Toolkit includes information for parents about protecting children from “digital drug dealers.” It highlights how drug dealers are using social media platforms to sell illicit substances and warns that they may contain deadly amounts of synthetic opioids. The toolkit also provides examples of emojis used as codes in online conversations regarding drug transactions.

Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans ages 18-45. The Drug Enforcement Administration announced they seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl in 2022 which is enough to kill every man, woman and child in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more than 108,000 drug overdose deaths during a 12-month span ending in Feb. 2022.