VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tells News 3 fake pills containing fentanyl are all over Hampton Roads, including in school-aged children.
“It doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, your age, your race, your gender- it doesn’t matter, it’s affecting everybody and at DEA we see it affecting everybody to include kids that are in school,” said Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget.
He said in 2022, 160,000 fake pills were seized in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. So far in 2023, they've seized three times that. A startling statistic showing it's becoming more prevalent, making the conversation surrounding drugs so vital.
“Everybody needs to be raising that level of awareness about this threat, its absolutely critically important, we’re not going to arrest our way out of this problem it’s going to take everybody,” said Forget.
Virginia Beach mother Shannon Doyle has made it her mission to talk about the dangers of drugs; specifically fentanyl. Her daughter Makayla Cox died of fentanyl poisoning in January 2022.
“When I went to wake her up that morning I found her in her bed and she was gone,” said Doyle.
Cox was a student at Ocean Lakes High School. Doyle now goes to area high schools to talk about fentanyl. Her message is this: that one choice could be your last.
“It’s in the schools, it's on every corner, it's on social media... it’s so easy to get,” said Doyle.
Data from the 2020-2021 school year from the Virginia Department of Education shows there were 435 drug violations across the state.
In Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach had the highest number of violations with 41. Chesapeake had 10, Hampton had 6, Norfolk had 4, Newport News had 3, and Suffolk had 1. Portsmouth was not listed.
