Shannon holds the urn that holds her son Josh’s ashes Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Petaluma. Josh, who died in October 2020 due to a fentanyl overdose, is one of two teens in Petaluma whose deaths have been attributed to the deadly drug in the past two years. (CRISSY PASCUAL/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

Narcan and drug testing strips: Fentanyl’s devastating impact on youth in Petaluma

As fentanyl use soars, local death sparks reflection

In the living room of an east Petaluma home, a high school junior named Matt unzipped his backpack.

Beneath a black and lime green bucket hat, his colorful, beaded bracelets rattled as he pulled out two things he now never leaves home without: A fentanyl testing kit and an overdose reversal drug widely known as Narcan.

Since Josh, his boyfriend, died after accidentally taking fentanyl in the fall of 2020, Matt, 17, has carried the critical supplies with him wherever he goes, “Even if I’m going to the store.”

So do most of Matt’s friends.

Josh’s boyfriend, Matt shows the fentanyl testing kit and Narcan he carries with him wherever he goes. Josh’s sister sits on a chair with Matt in the living room of the east Petaluma house where she lives with her mom and oldest brother._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Josh’s boyfriend, Matt shows the fentanyl testing kit and Narcan he carries with him wherever he goes. Josh’s sister sits on a chair with Matt in the living room of the east Petaluma house where she lives with her mom and oldest brother._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

Several of them agreed to speak to a reporter on the condition that only their first names be used to protect themselves from future internet searches.

As Matt demonstrated in mid-March how the test kit is used to detect even trace amounts of the deadly substance, Josh’s mom, Shannon, ventured a question.

“Have you had occasion to use that?” she asked.

Matt said he had — multiple times, and the kit has often detected fentanyl in recreational drugs he and others were planning to use.

“And what was the choice that you made when you saw that it was laced?”

“I personally didn’t do it, I could not help if others did — because that was their choice,” Matt said.

Even trace amounts of the substance, which is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, can be deadly. But the killer drug’s danger also lies in its ubiquity. Sonoma County health officials say it’s present in 90% of black market drugs, and almost all of the heroin found in the county.

In the 18 months since Josh died, those closest to the former Casa Grande High School junior have been beset by grief and guilt. They’ve also come to grips with two now-universal truths in the midst of the fentanyl-driven third wave of the nation’s opioid crisis.

Shannon wipes a tear as she hears stories about her son, Josh, who died after accidentally taking a drug laced with fentanyl. An enlarged photo of Josh sits in the living room of her east Petaluma home._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Shannon wipes a tear as she hears stories about her son, Josh, who died after accidentally taking a drug laced with fentanyl. An enlarged photo of Josh sits in the living room of her east Petaluma home._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

The first, Shannon said, is that things will never be the same as before. The second is the piece of knowledge that might have spared her son.

“Assume everything you get on the street is laced with fentanyl,” she said.

Troubling trend

The story of Josh’s death comes at a time when authorities are sounding the alarm around the rising number of fentanyl deaths, including among juveniles who are more exposed to the deadly drug than ever.

Since 2017, Sonoma County has tracked more than 500 overdose deaths, including 173 in 2020. At least 70% of those deaths were linked to fentanyl, according to county data. And while just seven of those 500 deaths have been people younger than 18, more than half of those deaths have come in the past two years, including two in Petaluma.

Petaluma Police Lt. Nick McGowan has watched the rise of opioid abuse in southern Sonoma County for the better part of a decade. The appearance of fentanyl about four or five years ago, though, marked a troubling new era in the fight.

Packed into counterfeit medications and spliced in low doses into recreational drugs, fentanyl has allowed dealers to cut their wares while maximizing profits, said McGowan, who oversees the Petaluma Police Department’s response to community health and substance abuse, among other duties.

“As you cut the particular drug, the toxicity will be diminished,” McGowan said, explaining how fentanyl plays into a multinational drug supply chain. “I can cut it multiple times, and add a little bit of fentanyl — it’s a way to maximize the quantity of the drug.”

The fentanyl-laced illicit drugs most often used in California make their way into the state from Mexico, where factory labs churn out the supply to meet stateside demand. Outside of the hundreds of deaths attributed to the drug locally, police and first responders have seen other impacts firsthand.

At a recent panel discussion on increased alcohol and drug use in Petaluma, McGowan said Petaluma first responders administered naloxone 35 times in 2021.

Just last weekend, Petaluma Police were forced to administer naloxone, the generic form of Narcan, after a local man, believing he was using cocaine, snorted a substance now thought to be fentanyl, McGowan said.

When it comes to combating fentanyl use among youth, McGowan said, education is key.

Getting help

If you or someone you know is facing mental health or substance use issues, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers a a free, confidential referral and information service in English and Spanish. Call 1-800-622-HELP (4357), or go online to findtreatment.samhsa.gov.

“Just understanding that purchasing any drugs off the internet through non-reputable companies, there’s a high probability that you’re going to get something that has fentanyl in it,” McGowan said.

Everyone’s best friend

Josh, in a photo taken a few months before his death in 2020. Courtesy of family
Josh, in a photo taken a few months before his death in 2020. Courtesy of family

At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, Josh, even at 17, loomed large when he walked into a room. It helped that he hewed toward the entertainer role with friends, and he was never shy about expressing strong views in class at Casa Grande High School.

Logan, 18, said Josh defended him during a fight, helped him open up and had a knack for making whoever he was with feel like the most important person in the world.

“He was my only friend for a long time,” Logan said.

For an almost comical number of people, Josh was known as their “best friend.”

Logan, one of Josh’s best friends tears up as he and other friends and family members of Josh recall memories of him._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Logan, one of Josh’s best friends tears up as he and other friends and family members of Josh recall memories of him._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

“I think he was everyone’s best friend,” said Lee, 18, another friend.

That list included those who gathered for the memorial Lee hosted at the Phoenix Theater following Josh’s death, and a couple of homeless residents who memorialized Josh at Lucchesi Park following his death, his mother said.

Josh befriended some transient unsheltered people who admired him and considered him a friend. When he died, one of them carved his name on a tree at Lucchesi Park._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Josh befriended some transient unsheltered people who admired him and considered him a friend. When he died, one of them carved his name on a tree at Lucchesi Park._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

The love that Josh inspired also meant that, for Shannon, the circumstances surrounding her son’s death — in his room, during online classes in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic — were unknown beforehand.

“They loved him, and they kept his secrets. Even dangerous, stupid secrets that should not have been kept,” Shannon said.

She didn’t know at the time that Josh had taken two Percocets and a Xanax — a so-called “sleeping bag” — the morning of Oct. 20, 2020. She didn’t know that he was on the phone with Matt when he fell asleep, or that Matt tried to get Josh’s sister to wake him up.

“I was like, ‘You gotta wake him up,’” Matt said.

And then, “‘Hey … I think you should go get your mom.”“

After the fact

When she found the jar of pills she suspects were responsible for Josh’s death, Shannon reflected on where he might have gotten them — how substance use, like so much in life, is based on trust.

“Josh got it from a friend that he trusted, and that friend got it from someone that they trusted, who got it from …” Shannon said, trailing off. “We don’t really know the origin.”

Shannon stands in the hallway outside Josh’s old bedroom. Her oldest son now stays there. She and her daughter discovered him in his bedroom when he didn’t wake up after taking pills laced with fentanyl._Tuesday, April 05, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Shannon stands in the hallway outside Josh’s old bedroom. Her oldest son now stays there. She and her daughter discovered him in his bedroom when he didn’t wake up after taking pills laced with fentanyl._Tuesday, April 05, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

That unknown, and her very real fears that fentanyl’s prevalence could lead to more kids dying, helped push Shannon to share her family’s story. And her experience has also inspired her to reach out to others.

Josh’s death has had reverberations throughout his friend group as well.

Matt has sworn off hard drugs. He can’t say the same for other drugs — or other people in his life.

“I’m more for harm reduction than scaring them,” he said. “If they’re going to do it, they should at least do it safely.”

Lee, who bonded with Josh through a shared love of music, said Josh’s death was a wake-up call. Lee was doing cocaine, Xanax, and generally, “getting more into it.”

“It took Josh for me to be like, ‘Holy f***, what am I doing?’” they said.

Moving forward

Matt wipes tears from his face as he recalls stories of Josh._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Matt wipes tears from his face as he recalls stories of Josh._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

In his first trip back to Shannon’s living room, where he and Josh had spent almost every day cuddling on the couch, he burst into “hysterical tears,” Shannon said.

“I said I was sorry, and I should have tried to wake him up sooner,” Matt said, his voice catching in that same living room 18 months later.

Shannon walked over and hugged him tight.

“I said it’s not your fault,” Shannon said this week, recalling the moment.

Matt describes the days and weeks that followed Josh’s death as “gray.” Shannon was frozen.

“We’re not supposed to outlive our children,” she said.

“I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I was stuck in the mire and the muck of those feelings.”

Shannon knocks on Josh’s old bedroom door where her oldest son now stays. Josh was found in this room on the morning of October 20, 2020 after taking pill laced with fentanyl._Tuesday, April 05, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
Shannon knocks on Josh’s old bedroom door where her oldest son now stays. Josh was found in this room on the morning of October 20, 2020 after taking pill laced with fentanyl._Tuesday, April 05, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

Josh’s death is one of more than 50 in Petaluma since 2017. Through September 2021, he was the youngest to die from an overdose, according to data obtained from the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office.

Similar data plays out countywide, where just seven of the 500 people killed by fentanyl were minors — including Josh. But law enforcement officials worry the number could grow, particularly with ready online access to counterfeit narcotics.

Shannon said exchanges with other moms who have lost children to fentanyl poisoning — as she calls it — or other overdoses have helped her stack good days together.

But she also recognizes that she’s not who she was before Josh died. Speaking in her living room, with a large canvas portrait of Josh behind her, Shannon dissects her family’s life into two distinct parts - before Josh, and after.

Josh, age 11, with his mom, Shannon. Courtesy of family
Josh, age 11, with his mom, Shannon. Courtesy of family

Now, less bubbly and less willing to engage in superficial dialogue, Shannon sees a future in being there for other moms.

“What I realized in talking to (one mother), is I needed to be that person for the next person, because unfortunately there will be a next person …” she said.

Schools respond

Less than a year after Josh died, another high school student in Petaluma died due to a suspected fentanyl overdose. The 16-year-old San Antonio High School student was the youngest in the city to succumb to the deadly substance since 2017.

For a school district already grappling with the pandemic’s well-documented impacts on students’ academic progress and socialization, losing two students in two years to fentanyl was a heavy blow. The district rallied to respond.

Petaluma City Schools had brought in therapists, advisers and psychologists in an effort to bolster support systems for students returning to in-person learning last fall.

Although they were hired to ease reentry into normal life in the wake of the pandemic, the new staffers — along with district partnerships with police and nonprofits — can play a key role in curbing substance abuse, administrators say.

But more is coming, said Maite Iturri, the district’s assistant superintendent of student services.

Project Success, tailored to tend to substance abuse problems, will launch this summer. And schools have hosted assemblies on the topic of hard drugs, including fentanyl.

Some of the messaging, students say, has shifted toward acknowledging students might do drugs, and informing them about how they can stay safe.

During an assembly at San Antonio High School, one of the district’s alternative schools, presenters touted overdose reversal drugs as helping homeless residents save as many or more lives than paramedics, Matt said, for example.

Shannon, who generally shuns the activist label, is adamant that schools should offer free Narcan and free drug testing kits to students.

A sticker declaring “I carry Narcan” on Matt’s phone._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
A sticker declaring “I carry Narcan” on Matt’s phone._Friday, March 11, 2022._Petaluma, CA, USA_(Crissy Pascual/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)

The district has a shipment of Narcan en route, courtesy of a California Department of Public Health grant, and has trained 100 staff members to use the overdose reversal drug, Iturri said.

But she said the district has yet to discuss providing the lifesaving nasal spray to students.

When told that there are Petaluma students walking around with overdose reversal drugs in their backpacks, Iturri paused to collect her thoughts.

“That our youth have to live their lives this way … it’s a shocking reality,” Iturri said.

“How amazing that a group of students have taken it upon themselves to protect their community. How terribly sad it is that that’s where we are.”

Tyler Silvy is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at tyler.silvy@arguscourier.com, 707-776-8458, or @tylersilvy on Twitter.

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