LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — With opioid-related deaths on the rise in Clark County, dozens of DEA agents, prevention specialists and addiction survivors shared their stories to help the next generation.
"I just remember waking up the next day and just throwing up 15, 16 times, not being able to move and having a fever," said 17-year-old Fentanyl overdose survivor Micah Allegood. "It was terrible, it was literally awful. I'm very grateful to be here today, I'm very lucky."
Allegood overdosed on fentanyl two years ago.
"It was off of fake Xanax. I had no clue I was taking fentanyl," Allegood said.
Allegood is now nearly two years sober after breaking an addiction to Xanax and psychedelics.
After surviving his overdose, Allegood helped spread the Drug Enforcement Agency's message that "One Pill Can Kill" to more than 700 CCSD students Tuesday at the Venetian Theater.
"We need people to understand that when they get a pill out on the street or on social media, when they get it anywhere other than a doctor or pharmacist, it's fake 100 percent of the time," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner.
He says the way people get street drugs now has changed. He says social media has become a pipeline with kids using Snapchat and Instagram and a special language that includes the use of emojis.
"I didn't know anything, and then I started seeing bags of mushrooms delivered to my doorstep. I'm thinking, how is this child getting this? And then I found out on Snapchat," said Micah's mom, Jennifer York.
York says she hopes people will listen to her son's story and not become a statistic, adding to the growing number of overdose deaths.
"I just hope they really think twice about what they do, and when they're hurting, go talk to somebody who can help them," she said.
The Southern Nevada Health District says fentanyl-related overdose deaths are up 620 percent in the county between 2011 and 2022. There were also 549 drug-related overdose deaths in the county in 2022.
