BRHA is proud to be represented on the new Fentanyl Drug Task Force in Bristol, Virginia. Thank you to the Bristol Virginia Public Schools for bringing our community together to address this important topic.
by Kristen Quon Friday, February 18th 2022
According to the CDC, pharmaceutical fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, approved for treating severe pain, typically advanced cancer pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The drug has become more and more prevalent, and law enforcement officers are now seeing Fentanyl laced in other drugs, which is contributing to more overdoses.
“Fentanyl is a huge problem across our nation and it’s starting to creep into our community,” said Superintendent of Bristol, Virginia schools, Keith Perrigan.
Perrigan says they are focused on prevention and also want to be able to react if it does make it to the school system.
“We’re trying to get the right folks together to provide education to our parents staff and students to make sure they know just how dangerous this drug is and trying to prevent it from happening in our school,” said Perrigan.
The task force is made up of Bristol, Virginia police officers, housing authority leaders, health department officials, pastors, lawmakers, and high school students.
“It’s going to take our entire community to protect our students from this terrible drug,” said Perrigan.
Virginia High School students Caleigh Hampton and Elijah Williams are on the board and hope to take what they learn back to their peers.
“Our job as student reps are to advocate for our students,” said Hampton. “The people on this task force are members of the community. They don’t see it first hand what we see everyday….we come out every month and talk about what’s going on in our schools and this is one thing we need to talk about and advocate for.”
The task force plans to meet again in 3 weeks.
