AUDIO – LOSING OUR CHILDREN –
May 22, 2024 – The trend has shocked many pediatricians, who say they feel unprepared to provide counseling on opioid addiction. Across the country, fentanyl has largely fueled a more than doubling of overdose deaths among children ages 12 to 17 since the start of the pandemic … Fatal overdoses in D.C., Maryland and Virginia are in keeping with the national increase in opioid fatalities, which until recently primarily claimed the lives of adults. In 2022, 45 teens succumbed to opioids locally, a number roughly equal to the previous three years combined, data show. And incomplete data for 2023 show no sign of the crisis abating in young people. Physicians at area hospitals report a rise in young people who took opioids arriving to emergency rooms and local addiction specialists say the number of teens seeking help for opioid use is spiking — especially among Latinos.
