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Danger

I am posting the following story from a local newspaper just as a 'heads up' about the dangers of one particular drug, but I believe the message could be applied to all of them. This young man was just beginning his life...it is a shame he made a really bad choice, and ended that life so soon.


ASHEVILLE – Will Chapman had worried for his oldest son and had been asking family and friends if they would help him get the teenager’s attention and turn his life around.

The intervention group just didn’t come together in time, Chapman said Tuesday night as he gathered thoughts on what he will say to Matthew Chapman’s Erwin High classmates at a memorial service today.

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Matthew Chapman died in his sleep some time early Sunday morning. The 17-year-old had stolen patches of the powerful painkiller fentanyl and placed one on each arm earlier in the day.

“My son had no idea what he was dealing with,” Chapman said. “It’s got to be told. Other teenagers don’t need to be doing this.”

Emergency department physicians nationwide have been reporting a surge in deaths related to abuse of fentanyl, a drug 50 times more potent than heroin when taken intravenously, the federal Centers for Disease Control said in a 2007 report.

Federal agencies alarmed at the rise in the drug’s abuse through stolen patches also have reported increases in fentanyl-related deaths.

Chapman said he has been learning about the dangers of prescription drug abuse in the time since his son’s death. He had two boys.

Well-liked child
Matthew Chapman started having troubles last year, his sophomore year at Erwin, where he played center and defensive tackle on the football team.

The trouble started with a marijuana arrest, Chapman said.

“He started making bad choices — and it doesn’t take long,” he said. “I just couldn’t reach him.”

Chapman said he wants parents to hear his message of bringing a sense of urgency in trying to help teenage children having troubles. He also wants to warn other students of the dangers of prescription and other drug abuse.

The memorial service today will be for all students, Buncombe County Schools spokesman Stan Alleyne said. About 1,300 students are enrolled at Erwin.

Chris Brookshire, Erwin’s head football coach through this last season, described
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460185 tn?1326077772
How tragic.  I have posted twice for having suicidal thoughts possibly becoming actions and then to read about this tragedy - it kind of puts things in perspective.  Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent.  I've never heard of fentanyl but it sounds dangerous.  When my kids were younger, they grew up in the ghetto where street drugs are common.  I think that seeing teenagers lying in the parking lot with needles in their arms and seeing their friends go to jail for drug-related charges or shootings is what gave them the strength to stay off drugs, stay in school and get decent jobs.

It feels like no words are adequate to articulate this horror.

If there is no objection, I will pray and smudge for his spirit and those of his parents (I'm Native American).

lonewolf

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Avatar universal
I believe something like this is a sobering lesson for anyone who has or is using drugs (or even thinking about using), or has been touched in some way by substance abuse, as a family member or friend of an abuser. I know I have looked at these things in a much different way since my daughter abused Oxy (and is clean 2 years this month...yeah!!), and my son attempted suicide 2 years ago with otc sleep meds (and he was an alcohol abuser then...clean 2 years this June...another yeah!!).  

I received another shock 2 days ago. My daughter told me the reason she wouldn't come home to NC to detox 2 years ago was because she had left NC to get away from her 'friends' she had smoked Meth with when she lived here 14 years ago! I had no idea she had been doing that when she lived here (though I do remember she didn't visit us much when she was in NC...even though she only lived 15 minutes away). I tell you what...sometimes all I can do is shake my head and thank God for giving me His peace, because I would be a total looney if I didn't have faith that He is in control of my life and the peace I have in this crazy world.

mawmaw3
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Avatar universal
what a sad story i pray every day my children will not get messed up in the wicked world of drugs.
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Avatar universal
OMG, that's so awful.....I need to see that death can happen...not only to young kids, but us as well....I count my lucky stars I'm alive after all the **** I've put in my body....I have children to raise.  Poor baby.  poor family....
Helpful - 0
435658 tn?1257805781
That is so scary..I have two teens..I worry about them all the time, I have been totally honest to them about my problem with pills and they have seen the w/d, that might be the only good thing that has come out of my problem,..scaring the **** out of my kid's on what drugs can do...itleast i hope it has scared the **** out of them.
Helpful - 0
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