DRUG ADDICTION IN FRESNO
The opioid epidemic has a hold on the nation and the central valley.
Erick Ozeta is an opioid survivor who has been sober for six years.
“A lot of people who struggle with addiction internalize a lot of stuff and they isolate themselves and it’s not a recipe for success,” says Ozeta.
Now getting high is a game of Russian roulette. In 2021, emergency services responded to 84 Fentanyl overdoses in Fresno. Thiry four of them ended in death.
People can receive help from Parents and Addicts in Need (PAIN). The Nonprofit provides support to addicts and to their families. It’s helped more than 3,000 addicts since 2009.
PAIN’S president and founder Flindt Anderson says being an addict is more dangerous than ever.
“With the fentanyl crisis, they don’t know what they’re getting,” Anderson says. “There’s no way to determine what is in that pill or if they are using cocaine. If a drug dealer has laced it with fentanyl or it’s just straight fentanyl.”
Anderson says 93 percent of PAIN’s clientele went to a Clovis Unified School. He believes kids should be under pressure but believes for many it’s too much.
“They have to be the starting first baseman,” Anderson says. “They have to be the first chair trumpet in the band. They have to be straight students. Most of these kids are just that, kids. They don’t know how to handle that pressure.”
Frankie Deprima was not an addict. He was a 20-year-old who sometimes experimented with drugs. Frankie died from a fentanyl overdose two years ago.
On April 17, 2020, Frankie was playing Xbox early that morning. Elaine Hudson, Frankie’s mom, said it wasn’t anything unusual for him to sleep through the day.
As the day went on and 6 p.m. came, Hudson started to worry.
“I went to his door and it was locked so I went and got the key. And I opened it up I could tell he’d been gone for a long time,” Hudson said.
Frankie had six times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system.
Hudson is now trying to get her story out in an effort to help others.
“I tell my story because I want kids to know when they see me I want them to think about if their parents should have to go through this. No parent should have to find their child dead in their room.”