{"id":127546,"date":"2024-03-11T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=127546"},"modified":"2024-03-11T07:57:21","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T11:57:21","slug":"nyt-front-page-in-fentanyl-deaths-victims-families-say-word-choice-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=127546","title":{"rendered":"(NYT front page) In Fentanyl Deaths, Victims\u2019 Families Say Word Choice Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death certificate for Ryan Bagwell, a 19-year-old from Mission, Texas, states that he died from a fentanyl overdose.<\/p>\n

His mother, Sandra Bagwell, says that is wrong.<\/p>\n

On an April night in 2022, he swallowed one pill from a bottle of Percocet, a prescription painkiller that he and a friend bought earlier that day at a Mexican pharmacy just over the border. The next morning, his mother found him dead in his bedroom.<\/p>\n

A federal law enforcement lab found that none of the pills from the bottle tested positive for Percocet. But they all tested positive for lethal quantities of fentanyl.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyan was poisoned,\u201d Mrs. Bagwell, an elementary-school reading specialist, said.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Overdose or Poisoning? A New Debate Over What to Call a Drug Death.: Grieving families want official records and popular discourse to move away from reflexive use of \u201coverdose,\u201d which they believe blames victims for their deaths. https:\/\/t.co\/EE9BNjgr23<\/a><\/p>\n

— Sophia Devetzi (@SophiaDevetzi) March 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n