Fentanyl: the Deadliest Serial Killer in America

Kalie talks about Fentanyl, the opioid that has now become the #1 cause of death in Americans age 18-45. She talks about ways you can help and reads a letter from her late friend’s father to Florida Gov. Ron Desantis asking for decriminalization of test strips.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, it's Kaylie Shore and this is too much
to say questions turning it out you, So I have
to be honest and tell you guys that I have

(00:21):
been procrastinating doing this episode because it makes me really
emotional and it's something that, despite how it might seem, UM,
it's very difficult for me to talk about, but I'm
going to do it because I feel like this is
part of my purpose. And um, there's so many things

(00:46):
that even I don't know about what's going on, even
though I'm very close to the situation. So I've I've
even learned a lot of new things this week, so
I want to share them with you guys. But UM,
I'm going to be talking about the opioid crisis and
specifically ventyl um. I have discussed this on the podcast before, obviously,

(01:08):
and most of you guys know if you listen to
my music or the podcast, you know that I lost
my sister UM to a accidental ventyl overdose in January
of twenty nineteen, and then UM, I lost my high
school best friend Casey two an accidental fentyl overdose UM

(01:28):
in March of this past year. So ah, it's just
it's just fucking hard. But I feel like I've been
given a platform where I'm bus enough that people listen,
and I feel like I can actually make a difference. Um.
But it does involve me kind of putting on my

(01:51):
armor in order to talk about it. Um. And there's
a lot of stuff that people don't see, even my
you know, friends and boyfriend don't don't see behind the scenes. Um.
But basically this all started like a couple of weeks ago.
I made a funny tweet, um, because everything starts with

(02:13):
a tweet for me. UM. But I posted something and
I was like, young enough to still be going out
to house parties till seven in the morning, old enough
to be passing out fentinyl test strips to all the
twenty one year olds in the bathroom line about to
put stranger danger up their nose. Um. And the Wall

(02:33):
Street Journal saw it and we're like, hey, can we
interview you? And I was like that it's random, but
absolutely I'd be honored. And they really wanted to talk
about me passing out test strips at clubs, which is
something that I do. Um. I live in Los Angeles primarily,
and UM, I'm not gonna lie and tell you guys
that I haven't seen drugs out at parties and clubs.
It's absolutely a thing and if I don't see it,
you know what's happening. Um. I personally only smoke weed

(02:57):
and that's legal here, so I don't have to worry
about anything began it. But um, I'm like a lot
less likely to smoke weed in Tennessee where it's illegal
because you can still have fenyl in that. Um. But
we'll talk more about that later. But UM, you know,
there's just drugs, and if you go to a festival,
I mean, I'm sure you guys have all you know it,

(03:17):
had your experiences with them, whether they're taking them or
just knowing someone who does. But more of the story
is any drug can have fentyl in it, and all
it takes is two milligrams, which is a very very
very smul around two milligrams of fentyl to kill you.
So it's not just heroine that it's in. It's not

(03:38):
just meth. It's in the coke that people do on
the dance floor, and it's in the molly that people
do at music festivals, and it's in weed that people
smoke because they have chronic back pain. Like it's in everything,
and it's it's so easy to cross contaminate um because

(04:01):
it takes such a small amount. So it's very important
to me too, you know, do what I can. And
I feel like what I can do is if I'm
going to be in these situations where people are, you know,
probably using drugs, then I can give them something that
could potentially save their lives. And you know, I it's

(04:22):
like I was on Fox News UM Friday morning, and
I did the Chris Qualma show earlier in the week,
and I said on Fox that it like breaks me
to know that a one dollar resource was all that

(04:43):
stood between my sister Ashley and my friend Casey still
being here on Earth a dollar and um, god, it
was hard to hold it together on the news, it
really was. UM. But it's like such a pool solution
and so for me, it's like spending fifty bucks on

(05:06):
a package of them and passing them out and uh,
it feels like, you know, the easiest thing I could do.
And I don't know if anybody's ever gotten a positive
test result, because honestly, I just passed them out and
dip um. Most people here like are doing them in
bathroom and stuff. I'm not following people around. I'm just like, oh,

(05:28):
like having a conversation. I like, hey, you might not
need this, but you might see someone tonight who does. UM.
So that's kind of what what I've been doing. That's
what the interviews ended up being about. But when we
come back, I'm going to talk about what fentanyl is,
why it's so dangerous, and why you should be absolutely
scared shitless of it. Um. So we will be right back. Okay,

(05:59):
and we are back. So fundamentals, what is vanyl Fentanyl
is part of the opiate, opiates, and opioids classification of drugs,
which includes things like OxyContin, heroin, morphine, hydrocdone, and those
have different labels on them as well. So you have
uh synthetic, semisynthetic, and naturally occurring synthetic is made in

(06:23):
a lab. It contains no naturally occurring um opium like derivatives,
So that's all made in a lab, completely man made,
and ventinol is an example of that. And then for
semi been synthetic, you have oxyconton that is a combination
of naturally occurring opiates and a man made substance, and

(06:45):
then you have naturally occurring ones like morphine, and those
are all like those ones are naturally occurring substances that
are made like in labs into a more concentrated version
of that. UM. They're all in probably incredibly addictive. I mean,
there's been people have been addicted to opium since they

(07:07):
first discovered they could turn poppy seeds into that. UM.
But fenton al specifically was developed in the late fifties
early sixties UM, and it was created as a drug
specifically for cancer patients. So people are very very far
end of life. UM. That's you know, when you hear

(07:30):
this term morphine drip, like people are typically on that
as they're dying, just to make it more comfortable. Um,
it is. And that's like why it was so crazy
with oxycon because opiates and opioids have historically been for
people who were like, it doesn't matter if you get
addicted to anything, if you're about to die, you know,
like it's it's to make you comfortable on your way out,

(07:52):
but you're not going to Like the addiction isn't a
concern if the you know, you're terminal. So fentanyl is
super super strong and is given to people in that
context and m Basically people figured out because it's a
man made substance, they figured out how to make it
in labs themselves. So there's um illegal fentyl, and then

(08:13):
there's car fentanyl, which is a like illegally made version
of ventyl that's a hundred times more potent than fentyl.
So it's like you got like the car ventyl makes
heroin look like baby Tait lennel straight up, and um,

(08:35):
it's just really scary. But there's like this is insane,
but there's this um thing that they sell, uh, And
you can get a prescription for fentyl lollipops and they're
given to cancer patients. But by the like ten years
into their development, it was discovered that of people who

(08:57):
had fentanyl lollipop prescription were not cancer patients, which is insane. Um.
So the thing aside from from that, like from like
the legal uses of like end of life stuff, um,
typically people don't want to do fentyl because you can
almost guarantee that the fentanyl you have is not from

(09:20):
a pharmacy. It's unregulated made in a lab essentially you know,
like um, a meth lab, but for ventyl and uh,
it's nearly impossible to regulate how much is in it,
so people don't want to take their chances with fentyl.
And they actually did a study by John Johns Hopkins

(09:42):
University where they found that sevent of people with substance
abuse disorder would modify their behaviors if they knew there
was ventyl in their drugs, meaning they would not take it. Um,
they would try harder to get sober. I mean, people know,
when you hear fentyl, you think death. You don't think like,

(10:05):
good time, let's try this at a party. You think death,
as you should, because it is exactly as scary as
it freaking sounds. Um, So people aren't buying fentyl knowingly,
like very rarely does that happen. Um, My sister when
she passed away, she did not know that there was
fentyl in her drugs, that they were laced. And then

(10:27):
when my friend Casey passed away, she thought she was
doing two lines of cocaine and um, it was fentyl.
So people aren't like, oh, yeah, suck me up on fenyl.
It's just not a thing. And I mean you can
fentyl can be in weed because it's so concentrated. If
you have a drug dealer who sells, you know, knockoff

(10:49):
oxy cotton which is made with fenyl um, and they
sell marijuana there, you know, picking out the stems of
the marijuana on the coffee table. There's some like powder
left from the fentyl boom. A kid smokes that and dies.
That is how potent it is. And car fentyl is
the one that you hear about where it's like if

(11:09):
you touch it, you could overdose. And that's actually like
it sounds insane, but it's that's how strong it is.
And people are I mean, it sounds like a bioweapon, right,
doesn't it sound like freaking warfare like? And it is.
It really feels like some sort of dystopian thing. And
this feels like the third wave of the opioid epidemic.

(11:31):
For sure. It was like heroin oxyconton entyl, and I
just want to know when it stops. It's really just tough.
It's really tough. It's tough for me to like talk
about this, but I know I have to. Um So
fentyl is like this is the craziest fact that I

(11:54):
actually recently learned. Um, not not drugs, not overdose is
of any type not even opioids. Fentanyl specifically is the
number one cause of death in Americans age eight. The
number one cause, not to mention the number one cause

(12:15):
for children is guns. So it feels like maybe if
we're going to be talking about being pro life, maybe
we should try to try to save these lives that
are I mean, it's completely preventable and a final test
trip costs a dollar. And so there's all these states
that it's still not legal in and that is incredibly frustrating.
Tennessee just legalized it. But when it's not legal, you're

(12:38):
taking this resource away from people. And it's like in
the eleventh hour in Florida on House Bill, they took
out the language that would have decriminalized test strips. And
that happened three weeks after Casey died in Florida, which
is really messed up. Um. So when we come back,
I'm going to read you a letter to Governor Rohnd

(12:59):
to Santa US that Casey's dad wrote, and it's really powerful.
And if any of you guys listen and live in Florida,
please call your governor, call your representatives. They are elected
to serve you, to serve their constituents. And if they're
letting them die, then they're certainly not doing a good job.
So we will be right back. So this will be

(13:31):
the second letter that my friend Casey's dad wrote to
the governor of Florida, where they live. And I'm just
going to read this to you verbatim and please like
and just encourage you guys, especially especially if you live
in a state where it's not legal. Texas, UM and

(13:51):
Florida definitely have not decriminalized test strips, so Tennessee just did.
But look up if your state has UM allows them
or not, and if they don't, please call tweet. I mean,
this is something that is we'll save so many lives
and it's such a small thing that is illegal on

(14:11):
a technicality from the War on drugs in the eighties.
So all of that being said, this is from Caseta,
Dear Governor to Santis, I am writing you again about
the fentinyl epidemic that is plaguing our nation. In the
great state of Florida. There were over eight thousand deaths
from overdoses in Florida alone. The vast majority over are

(14:36):
caused by fentanyl. The Medical Examiner's offices in the state
are overwhelmed and backed up three to six months in
their work due to the overwhelming numbers of death. There
are various types of fentanyl far more deadly. I s
O twenty times stronger than finyl, hundred times two thousand
times stronger than morphine, car fentyl a hundred times stronger
than fentanyl, ten thousand times stronger than morphine. Any of

(14:58):
these three drugs half the size of a grand of
rice will kill a person. This is personal for me.
My daughter, Casey Bouchard, twenty seven years old, died March
in Lake Worth, Florida. Casey was poisoned with a mixture
of these deadly drugs. She never stood a chance of
living after doing two lines of what she thought was cocaine.
Casey graduated from Curry College in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating

(15:21):
high school, she helped start an orphanage in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Casey had her RBT registered Behavioral therapist license from Florida
and was employed full time helping teach autistic children. Additionally,
while in elementary school through to high school, she volunteered
at the local soup kitchen feeding the homeless. Casey knew
almost every homeless person on the streets of Portland, made
by their first name Casey had a test kit Fentinel

(15:44):
test trips, she could have known that she what she
had contained poison and she might be alive. Today, Florida
does not allow the test trips to be sold in
the state. No manufacturer will even ship them to Florida
doing to due to the law here making them illegal.
I'm requesting you reconsider this law. Certainly it is not
advocating for drug use that is helping save lives. My
request a changed a lot and allow fentinyl test kits

(16:05):
in Florida be changed the criminal sentencing laws on dealing
fentinyl to a much higher sentence and closing, I appreciate
your time and attention to this serious and devastating crisis.
I've been closed in photos of Casey and pictures of
fentinyl test kits. Sincerely, yours, Peter Bouchard. It just sucks.

(16:29):
It just freaking sucks. Um. I really feel called to
do this, and I'm really thankful that because I'm a singer,
i have a platform and I've been able to go
on the news and talk to people. And I know,
I mean, Fox News is the number one news station

(16:51):
in the country, believe it or not. And I got
to go on there this morning and I know that,
you know, I mean not know how many people there,
definitely tens of thousands of people saw it, and that
is so important and I feel very UM. I don't
want to use words like lucky or blessed, but I
feel very god synonyms are hard. I just I feel

(17:16):
like I I'm grateful for the opportunity to turn something
absolutely fucking horrifying into something that can help people. I
think that's the only thing that we can do when
we were handed a ship sandwich. UM. And I don't
think everything happens for a reason, but I think that

(17:36):
you can make the suffering have a purpose. UM. And
this to me feels like my purpose for going through
all of this. UM. So if you guys want to
get involved, I want to learn how to get ventinyl
test trips. Message me and also a great great resource,

(17:56):
especially if you live in southern California. UM. They do
a lot of work here, but they also do stuff
and just like provide educational stuff that you can read online.
But end Overdose their instagram is end dot Overdose and
their nonprofit. They're really amazing they provide an ARCAN training online.

(18:16):
That's like the next step in what I want to
do is UM, I want to I want to learn
how to administer NARCAN, which is UH overdose reversal drug UM.
And they also have really great stuff that you can
start a college chapter of End Overdose, So if any
of you guys are in college, it's a really great

(18:37):
way to do it. And yeah, so thank you guys
so much for listening. I really appreciate it. And I
thank you guys for all the support when it comes
to like really difficult stuff in my life and and
just being a safe space to talk. I hope that
you learned something. I hope that you do something with

(18:58):
this information. And if you know what it feels like
to lose someone to an overdose, I'm so sorry and
I'm sending you a hug through your headphones right now. UM,
thank you guys so much. I'm KAILI shure this is
too much to say, don't go ask me questions, So

(19:20):
I'm going to say, now turn it out. You