Little Phoenix Castro was only three months old when she was pronounced dead on the morning of May 13th by emergency responders urgently called by her father in San Jose, California. In the kitchen of the apartment, investigators found a mess of glass pipes and various medications among the baby bottles. An autopsy revealed the baby died of an overdose of methamphetamine and fentanyl. Traces of this synthetic opiate were discovered “all over his floral pajamas,” investigators said.
Read the letter from Washington: Article reserved for our subscribers Fentanyl, the drug that is ravaging the United States
The father, David Castro, 38, who was already responsible for two other children, ages three and four, was charged with child abuse in October. The mother, Emily De La Creda, 39, couldn't be there. Four months after her baby's death, she herself died of a fentanyl overdose. In the same apartment, San Jose police found all of the opiate dealer's equipment.
With her floral pajamas, Phoenix Castro has become a symbol of the current phase of the fentanyl epidemic in the USA, which also affects small children. From Kentucky to Oklahoma, the press has reported examples of children falling prey to opioids before they reach the age of reaching for objects or food on their own. In New York, 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici died of an overdose in late September while taking a nap at daycare. The fentanyl was stored under a mattress. In mid-November, a 29-year-old mother was charged with the death of her 10-month-old granddaughter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. the seventh fentanyl-related death of a child under five in this city. Blood tests on her three other children also revealed the presence of fentanyl.
In the late 1980s, crack cocaine caused major damage to newborns. “Cocaine babies” exposed to the drug in the womb were often born prematurely, sometimes weighing less than a kilo. “Fentanyl babies” die directly from an overdose, without caregivers knowing exactly how they came into contact with the opioid particles present in their environment. In 2021, 10 children under the age of five were overdose victims in Missouri. In 2022 their number will double.
Increase in use among young people
Despite the extensive measures taken by the authorities to arrest the traffickers, despite the distribution of Narcan, the drug that combats the effects of opioids on the body, despite the diplomatic pressure that the Biden administration is putting on China to prevent the illegal importation of chemical precursors To curb, year-end statistics showed no improvement in California, the state with the most overdose deaths each year (7,000 in 2022). However, fentanyl seizures have increased by 594% and the budget dedicated to the crisis is $1 billion.
You still have 40% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.