A bill mandating fentanyl education in Illinois high schools is now on Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk and some Chicago high school students say they now understand why it’s essential to raise red flags about fentanyl.
“I realized it's a massive issue and it's only growing in the United States. And it's really affecting people of my generation,” said Eliza McHale, who just graduated from Lane Tech High school in June.
McHale and her classmates in teacher Dan Stone’s data science class this past spring were looking for a final project, when they came across fentanyl.
“We were looking for a capstone project where students could research something and then share something out with their community,” said Stone, a computer science teacher. “We happened to come across some data visualization on social media of fentanyl and its impact on young people.”
The class decided to research the fentanyl crisis and teamed up with the Chicago Field Division of the Department Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“It was very rewarding to see their eyes open, for them to really dive into the data on their own,” said Luis Agostini, the Public Information Officer for the DEA Chicago Field Division.
The class crunched data sets and created infographics to share on social media, warning about the growing dangers of fentanyl.
Local
“The purity of fentanyl, it's been going up in recent years. So that was definitely something that was surprising,” said Violet Mullenix, a student who will start her senior year at Lane Tech in fall 2023.
That’s why Mullenix fully supports a bill passed by the Illinois legislature that would mandate fentanyl education in high school health courses starting in fall 2024.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
“I think it's really important because something that I learned is substance abuse disorder typically starts in adolescence or in the teenage years,” Mullenix said.
“It's tough to talk about something at home and to be aware for a parent to tell their child, this is a danger. The parents themselves don't even know about it,” Stone said.
The students learned about counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and created by drug traffickers to look like everyday pharmaceuticals.
“I've spoken with DEA agents who have been on the job for 20 to 25 years, and they will tell you, just by looking alone, they cannot distinguish a real pill from a fake one,” Agostini said.
“It's an accident, people are taking drugs that they think are like semi-prescription drugs and they’re laced with fentanyl. It's not like you're taking drugs repeatedly. Maybe it's one drug and it can kill you,” McHale said.
Agostini said the DEA cannot commend on the pending Illinois legislations, but he insists education about fentanyl is a DEA priority.
“Anything that we can do to help spread the message and raise awareness around the opioid overdose epidemic around fentanyl or on fake pills is vitally important,” Agostini said.
As far as the legislation, a spokesperson for Governor J.B. Pritzker says there’s no timetable on a bill signing.
