'Disturbing New Findings' Show Spike In Fentanyl Deaths Among Children, Infants

The number of children and infants losing their lives to fentanyl overdose has been on the rise in recent years.

A recent study published in the Journal of Pediatrics analyzed poison-related fatalities among children and found that the highest number of kids suffered poisoning from opioids.

The study looked at a nationwide database on accidental poisonings and found that 731 children aged 5 and under had poison-related deaths between 2005 and 2018, CNN reported. These deaths included children poisoned by over-the-counter medication that is generally taken for colds, allergies and pain. However, opioid poisoning contributed to the highest number of poison-related child deaths.

It takes very little fentanyl to have fatal consequences, and even ingesting just 2 milligrams can be deadly, according to News4JAX.

"I would consider it like someone leaving a handgun around children," Mike Dubet, a special agent in charge of the Jacksonville DEA district office, told the outlet. "Just leaving a loaded weapon laying around. If you leave drugs around your children, specifically drugs that may contain fentanyl, it can end deadly."

An analysis by the non-profit Families Against Fentanyl (FAF) found that "synthetic opioid (fentanyl) fatalities among children are rising faster than any other age group," according to its website.

Deaths due to synthetic opioids among children aged 4 and below more than tripled in two years and quadrupled among infants under the age of 1.

Additionally, "since 2015, deaths among infants increased nearly 10 fold; among children ages 1 to 14 deaths increased 15 fold: an increase of more than 1400%," FAF stated.

"These disturbing new findings should serve as a wake-up call to our nation's leaders," Jim Rauh, founder of FAF, said. " ... It is killing more and more children each year. It's time to treat this threat with the urgency it deserves."

Project Opioid's Andrae Bailey called the situation "crazy," adding, "We are seeing young people die in record numbers and we're going to have to do more to save lives."

Project Opioid takes efforts to raise awareness of the fentanyl crisis and urges decision-makers to take action.

"Fentanyl is the cheapest drug to produce that we've ever seen in the history of the United States of America. You can bring it in to this country for pennies on the dollar, make millions as a drug dealer," Bailey told NBC 6.

According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report, Mexico and China "are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States."

U.S. Republicans have called for military attacks on Mexico's drug labs to handle the fentanyl crisis. However, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently said fentanyl is a U.S. problem and Mexico is not responsible for it, AP News reported.

"Here, we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl," López Obrador stated during a discussion with White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.

"Why don't they [the United States] take care of their problem of social decay?" the Mexican president added.

He also mentioned America's norm of single-parent families, parents who send adult children out of the house and putting aging family members in old-age homes as reasons for why Americans are resorting to fentanyl.