Andy Kahan - Crime Stoppers Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, new report from Harris County Public Health. This
is pretty astounding over the last five years, a seventy
five percent increase in deaths involving substances. But if that
is alarming, that's nothing compared to the kids youth. This
three I'm sorry, three hundred and seventy percent increase between
twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two, and for youth between

(00:20):
fifteen and nineteen that number goes to five hundred and
forty four percent. What is going on? Why are so
many young people getting involved in the substances that are
killing them? Andy conn with Crimestoppers addressing with us this morning. Andy,
good morning, Thank great to be here. Good to have you,
Thanks so much. So, you know, the obvious answer to this,
or at least the you know, the superficient one, is well,

(00:42):
it's got to because of COVID. Right, COVID lockdowns in
twenty twenty twenty twenty one probably led to a lot
of this what your what is it telling you?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, basically, you've got easier methods of buying substances that
look like Harmel's prescription pills through social media. That's really
what led. There's no doubt that's led to the increase
and fatal overdoses in America. So social media platforms have
become the main conduit for teenagers to have easy access

(01:15):
to drugs like sentanyl. Another reason is it's obviously you've
got the border situation. It's so easy to smuggle across
the border. Sentanyl is the leading substance in those deaths.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, well, fentanyl, of course the leading substance in depths
all across the country. As we've been watching and monitoring
over the last four years, the more of it flows
in from China through Mexico and into the United States,
we're just seeing scores and scores of people dying. And
it's not even overdosing, right because with fentanyl you can
get just your very very first dose and it can
be lethal for you. And this is something that a

(01:54):
lot of these kids you're talking about online who are
buying these things don't have any idea about No.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Essentially, a lot of it is fake pills that are
falsely being marketed. In reality, you don't even know if
you're when you're obtaining these pills that they're actually ventanyl.
I mean that that to me is so scary that
most people, particularly teenagers, aren't even aware they're ingesting ventanyl
since it's found in other drugs like cocaine. As weather

(02:21):
one thing at crime Stoppers, you know, we do offer
ventanyl prevention resources. We offer a resource case. And for
God's sakes, parents have got to start getting involved in
what's going on with their children's social media accounts. And
we've got to do a better job at at least
of alerting parents when there's being purchases that are being

(02:42):
made through social media accounts so they can be aware
of what their teens are doing, no.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Question about it. Andy Conna is our guest from Crime Stoppers.
According to the report, though too, in addition to the
social media part you're talking about, schools are still an
extraordinary part of the problem here. Twenty six point five
percent of students in Houston reported being given drugs on
school property or having taken illegal drugs, whereas across Texas
that number was seventeen percent. So here in Houston Harris County,

(03:11):
the schools are just rife for these substances exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
And this is why you've got to have more public
awareness of the danger. Particularly, everybody's got to start coming
together on this. You've got to admit you've got a problem.
Before you can address the problem, you need a whole
total collaboration schools, law enforcement, public officials. And again I'm
going to harp on parents. It's got to start stepping

(03:37):
up to the plate.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
When parents andy find out that their kids are using
and they could be the next statistic in a fatality
with one of these things. What are some of their options?
What advice would you give if you have anything you
can say to them at all about well ways to
get their kids off of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
There's lots of drug prevention organizations, particularly in Harris County
that they can reach out too. Hospitals always have certain
areas that they cover involving drug prevention. I mean, there's
ways that you can wean teenagers off drugs, but you've
got to be aware that they're taking them before you

(04:15):
can take any action.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, very well said in that monitoring of their social
media activity is huge because you know, it used to
be when kids wanted to buy some weed, you know,
they had to go out and take a chance that
they weren't buying from an undercover cop. Now you can
organize and arrange these things online and do it a
lot more safely in terms of at least not getting
popped for it.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
All it takes is one click of a telephone and
you got drugs coming your way. And parents have no
idea that there's a package at their door that could
lead to their teen's death.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Wow. Absolutely shocking and something that we do need to
let parents know about. So really glad to have this report,
and really glad to have you and the folks at
crime stoppers sounding the alarm. Andy Conn, thanks so much
of the time. We appreciate it. Merry Christmas, sir, you
bet take care.