ST. LOUIS — Kirkwood and Brentwood police departments will host a joint townhall next week to educate parents on the fentanyl crisis among middle- and high school-aged children.

What You Need To Know

  • The presentation will discuss fentanyl threats, how it’s arriving and being distributed in the area, how social media is used to target the youth, in addition to a "hidden in plain sight" demonstration

  • Overdoses and drug poisonings have significantly increased over the past 4-5 years, according to Dickey, which are the leading causes of death for those aged 18-45. Those also are the fastest increasing causes of death for those aged 14-18

  • The presentation also will cover some emojis commonly used on social media that reference drugs

  • The "hidden in plain sight" demonstration will include a mock bedroom with drug paraphernalia. Parents will be quizzed to see if they can spot the items

The presentation will discuss fentanyl threats, how it’s arriving and being distributed in the area, how social media is used to target the youth, in addition to a "hidden in plain sight" demonstration.

“We can’t out arrest or out seize our way out of this problem,” said Colin Dickey, assistant special agent in charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) St. Louis Division.

“We can’t seize all of the drugs possible. We’re doing a job on our investigations, but the big thing is we need to educate and empower people with information.”

The town hall is set for Tuesday, May 21, at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center starting at 6:30 p.m. It is in collaboration with Addiction is Real, Inc. and the DEA St. Louis Division.

Overdoses and drug poisonings have significantly increased over the past 4-5 years, according to Dickey, which are the leading causes of death for those aged 18-45.

Those also are the fastest increasing causes of death for those aged 14-18, he added.

“That’s really why we want to get to the youth to talk about these threats and maybe stop them from making a bad decision that either, No. 1, lead them down a bad path and No. 2, could potentially end life as well,” Dickey said.

More than 2,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in Missouri in 2021, where 70% were caused by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

In 2022, a total of 2,178 people died from drug overdoses where 67% were related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the University of Missouri St. Louis Science Addiction Team.

They also report that the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the St. Louis region was more than 800 and roughly triple the amount in the Kansas City Metro, which has the second most fentanyl-related deaths.

Social media platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat are being used to market and sell drugs laced with fentanyl to children and adults.

“They know the youth are vulnerable. They’re on their phone,” Dickey said.

“People are buying these pills, thinking they’re a Xanax, or an oxycodone or a Percocet, when in reality, it contains fentanyl.”

He added, “That’s why we’re seeing a lot of these overdoses and poisonings occur because people have no idea that these pills actually contain fentanyl.”

The presentation also will cover some emojis commonly used on social media that reference drugs.

The "hidden in plain sight" demonstration will include a mock bedroom with drug paraphernalia. Parents will be quizzed to see if they can spot the items.

“The parents don’t know what they’re looking for or they don’t know what to see,” said Gary Baldridge, officer for the Kirkwood Police Department.

Dickey said the drug trafficking arena has changed over the past 20 years with the biggest threats back then were cocaine, heroine, marijuana and methamphetamine.

“Fentanyl has really replaced the heroin market,” Dickey said, adding that the reason is because it is a synthetic, man-made drug.

Fentanyl and methamphetamine are “made with precursor chemicals that are coming from China into Mexico and it’s being sent down there unregulated,” according to Dickey.

He said cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl and methamphetamine coming into the U.S. are mass-producing those drugs and “there’s no stopping in production because they don’t have to rely on regrowth or regeneration of crops.”

Fentanyl is distributed in powder, fake pills and used as a cutting agent to increase volume in other drugs such as cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Dickey mentioned parents should have conversations with their children about not taking pills or medication not authorized by a doctor and given by a trusted adult.

“I've been doing this for 20 years and I’ve never seen a deadlier threat than we’re seeing today,” Dickey said.

Multiple townhall presentations will take place throughout the year, according to Baldridge.

“We really ask people just to come with an open mind. This is going to be very enlightening for parents of middle school- and high school-aged children,” he said. “This is a very, very huge epidemic right now.”

The town hall is open to the public. The Kirkwood Performing Arts Center is located at 210 East Monroe Avenue.