Valentine’s Day 2021. Aaron and Logan Rockwell were watching television when the Valentine’s Day 2021. Aaron and Logan Rockwell were watching television when the phone rang. Logan’s best friend was calling, something that never happened. They knew immediately something was wrong.

Hours later, they found their 19-year-old son Logan dead in his university dorm room. He’d been lying there for nearly 11 hours.

“It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do,” Aaron recalls of seeing Logan in his bed that night.

Nine months later, another family received the same devastating phone call. Cade Reddington, also 19, also a university student, also found dead in his dorm room.

Both young men died from fentanyl poisoning. Neither knew they were taking fentanyl.

The Deadly Deception of Counterfeit Pills

Logan thought he was taking a blue 30-milligram oxycodone pill. It was completely fake. Cade believed he’d taken a prescription Percocet. It was 100% fentanyl.

“Fentanyl was something I had heard of, but not something I would have ever thought would have killed our child,” Aaron says.

The scale of this crisis is staggering. More than 70,000 people died in the United States in 2021 from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, up from nearly none just two decades earlier.

The drug’s potency makes it uniquely deadly. A lethal dose of fentanyl is just two milligrams: the equivalent of two to three grains of salt, barely visible on a pencil tip.

“This small amount of fentanyl right here, that’s what killed our son,” Aaron explains during presentations to university students.

When Minutes Matter

Cade died on a beanbag chair, surrounded by four friends who could have saved his life.

The students thought their friend had simply passed out from drinking too much. They had no idea about fentanyl poisoning. By the time they noticed his blue fingertips and lips, his shallow breathing and faint pulse, it was too late.

“Everybody, including his suitemates that were home and his friend, thought that he passed out from drinking too much,” Cade’s mother recalls. “Nobody really got alarmed until they noticed that the way he was laying in the beanbag chair was just kind of odd.”

Logan’s girlfriend was on FaceTime with him as he died. He’d mentioned feeling unwell, taken the pill, then started snoring and making gurgling sounds. She assumed he was falling asleep.

The police department was on the ground floor of Logan’s dorm building. Had anyone known the signs of fentanyl poisoning, they could have administered naloxone and potentially saved him.

The Signs Everyone Should Know

Both families now dedicate themselves to educating young people about recognising opioid overdose symptoms. The signs of fentanyl poisoning include:

• Unconsciousness without waking
• Blue fingertips and lips
• Shallow, laboured breathing
• Weak pulse
• Unusual snoring or gurgling sounds

A firm sternum rub should rouse an unconscious person. If it doesn’t, call 999 immediately.

“If you know the signs and if you see someone might be struggling in any way, you cannot hesitate,” the families emphasise. “It’s better to be wrong and to call and have a wellness check on somebody than to not call and have them die.”

The Prevalence of Fake Pills

The threat isn’t limited to pills masquerading as oxycodone or Percocet. Counterfeit Adderall, Xanax, and other medications are widely available, all potentially laced with fentanyl.

“It is out there and it is in everything,” warns one parent. “I tell kids, you can’t even take a Tylenol or an ibuprofen unless you know where it comes from.”

Young people experimenting with substances often have no idea they’re risking fentanyl poisoning. Cade had what his mother describes as “high risk-taking behaviour.”

“I think when he was faced with the opportunity to experiment, he was the type of kid that was like, ‘Sure, I’ll try that. Why not?’ And that ended up being his downfall.”

Naloxone: The Emergency Response

Naloxone (often known by the brand name Narcan) is an opioid antagonist that can reverse the effects of fentanyl poisoning when administered quickly. The most common form is a nasal spray.

“You stick this little nasal spray into somebody’s nose and you give it a pump and you can actually reverse the effects of the opioid overdose poisoning,” the families explain during their educational presentations.

Whilst naloxone isn’t 100% effective, knowing about it and having it available in emergency situations can mean the difference between life and death.

Speaking Out to Save Lives

For Logan’s younger brother, the loss is incomprehensible. “For me, the hardest part is most people don’t understand what it’s like to live your whole childhood from the time you can remember till you’re an adult and then all of a sudden in one day it’s taken away from you.”

Cade’s stepsister echoes this grief. “That day I lost my best friend and it’s a struggle every day to live without him.”

One of Cade’s friends had previously discovered he was taking Percocet and flushed the pills down the toilet. She’d promised herself that if she found out he was using again, she’d tell his parents.

“But she didn’t get that chance because the next time ended up being his last time,” his mother says.

The Power of Peer Intervention

The families’ message to students is clear: you are your friends’ best protection against fentanyl poisoning.

“You can save their life. Reach out to family, friends. Don’t be scared of the consequences,” they urge. “The biggest consequence you need to be scared of is that death. That is the biggest thing that everyone needs to understand.”

Before taking any pill, young people must understand the stakes. “You have to be able to make an informed decision and to really understand that it is life or death before you take something and swallow it,” Aaron emphasises. “This could literally end my life. I could have that last text to my parents. This could be it.”

A Legacy of Prevention

Both families have transformed their grief into advocacy through the Love, Logan Foundation, educating university students about the dangers of counterfeit pills and the signs of fentanyl poisoning.

Logan was an exceptionally kind young man with a soft heart, starting his first year at university. Cade was full of exuberant energy, beloved by friends and family. Both made a single choice that they believed was relatively low-risk. Neither survived.

The families’ message is urgent: one fake pill, one moment of experimentation, can end a life. Understanding fentanyl poisoning and its signs isn’t just important. It’s essential..

Source: Campus Drug Prevention