BOISE, Idaho — Fentanyl overdoes are on the rise in Idaho and nationally – in youth and in adults. In 2023, 197 lives were taken by fentanyl overdoses, and 22 of those were among ages 11-24, according to the Drug Overdose Prevention Program.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho partnered with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Boise, Kuna and West Ada school districts to invite 130 middle and junior high school students to learn about the deadly drug.
“No one knows what drug abuse will do to you before you start,” said Rocky Herron, a retired DEA agent who spoke at the summit. “And the drugs today are radically more dangerous than they were just even five years ago.”
Herron travels across the country to spread awareness about overdoses. He said he hasn’t seen a group of students so excited to learn about the subject as the group from the Treasure Valley was on Tuesday.
“The education folks here in the Treasure Valley brought these 130 kids together to win them over as advocates, to create in them ambassadors, to go back to their schools and to create educational projects and essentially change the culture in the schools,” Herron said.
U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit helped lead the initiative, and said it wasn’t just about educating students, but also having state leaders hear from students on what resources they’d like to see in their schools.
“It's going to be more effective if students are speaking with each other about what they've learned in ways that they want to live a drug free life,” Hurwit said.
Hurwit said the conversation doesn’t end here – he hopes the state can continue to talk about it, spread awareness and teach Idahoans the effects and prevention methods.
“Most people have said or heard about fentanyl a little bit, you know – fentanyl is bad, it's dangerous, and that's certainly true – but there's so much more to understand about the ways that it's getting into our society and sometimes being marketed to kids,” Hurwit said.