A poison control agency in Colorado warns the public about teens vaping fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid.
DENVER — Rocky Mountain Poison (Center) and Drug Safety, a division of Denver Health, in Colorado’s largest city, is warning the public about vaping fentanyl.
Fentanyl, as a reminder, is a dangerously addictive synthetic opioid tied to the ongoing epidemic killing thousands of people.
Public health officials at the Rocky Mountain Poison Center are concerned that teens are now using vaporizers with liquids containing the drug.
“One of the things we have noticed recently is we have gotten a fair number of calls to our poison center for young people, adolescents, who have been experimenting with vaping fentanyl,” said Dr. Christpher Hoyte, the medical director of the poison center, in a statement to local TV station KDVR Fox 31.
Hoyte told KDVR reporter Ashley Michels that he and his staff had seen indicators that teens in the local communities are using vapes with fentanyl.
Fentanyl, which usually comes in a pill, is now a significant product on the illicit market.
“It’s the age range that really is kind of the new thing. We hadn’t seen it quite as young as adolescents,” said Hoyte.
A recent report by the federal government’s Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking indicates that Mexico is now the primary source of all illicit fentanyl migrating to the U.S.
This also includes homemade fentanyl, considering it isn’t a “clear cut” science when producing such an illicit substance.
“It’s incomprehensible that our government’s reaction has been so inadequate,” Trone, himself, said.
Vaping Post has previously reported on cases where teens have been hospitalized for vaping liquids with dangerous substances.
