Faye Martin said her son, Ryan, a commercial electrician, was prescribed opioid painkillers for a work-related injury. When he became dependent on them, a doctor stopped his prescription. Ryan turned to heroin. Eventually, he entered treatment and stayed sober for a while. But, ashamed of his history of addiction, he kept to himself and gradually started using drugs again. Believing he was buying Xanax, he died from taking a fentanyl-tainted pill in 2021, the day after his 29th birthday.
Although he, like thousands of victims, died from a fake pill, his grieving mother feels like others are looking down on her.
“When my son died, I felt this stigma from people, that there was personal responsibility because he was using illegal drugs,” said Ms. Martin, of Corpus Christi, Texas. “But he didn’t get what he bargained for. He did not ask for the amount of fentanyl in his system. He wasn’t trying to die. He was trying to get high.”
For a growing number of prosecutors, if someone was poisoned by fentanyl, then the person who sold the drug was a poisoner — someone who knew or should have known that fentanyl could be deadly. More states pass fentanyl homicide laws.
Critics note that the idea of ​​a poisoner-evil does not explain the complications of drug use. “That’s a bit too simplistic, because a lot of people who sell substances or share them with friends also have a substance use disorder,” said Rachael Cooper, who runs an anti-stigma initiative at Shatterproof, an advocacy group.
People who sell or distribute drugs are usually several steps away from those who mix the batches. They would likely be unaware that their drugs contained lethal amounts of fentanyl, he said.
“In a de-politicized world, ‘poisoning’ would be accurate, but the way it is used now, it reframes what is likely a random event and redefines it as an intentional crime,” said Mr. Beletsky, who directs Changing the Narrative of Northeastern. project, which examines the stigma of addiction.
In toxicology and medicine, “overdose” and “poison” have value-neutral definitions, said Caitlin Brown, the clinical director of the Poison Centers of America, which represents and collects data from 55 centers nationwide.
“But the public will understand the terminology differently than people who are immersed in the field, so I think there are important distinctions and nuances that the public can miss,” he said.
“Overdose” describes a higher dose of a substance than was considered safe, Dr. Brown explained. The effect can be harmful (heroin) or not (ibuprofen).
“Poisoning” means that harm actually occurred. But it can be poisoning from countless substances, including lead, alcohol and food, as well as fentanyl.
Both terms are used whether an event results in survival or death.
