Ed Ternan had hardly heard of fentanyl when his son overdosed on the deadly opioid in Could 2020. Now he’s the president and co-founder of a California non-profit devoted to spreading consciousness in regards to the risks of fentanyl to teenagers and younger adults all through the nation. The title of the non-profit, which Ternan co-founded together with his spouse Mary, bears their son’s title — Tune for Charlie.
Fentanyl is a strong opioid that’s 50 instances stronger than heroin and is usually laced in different, much less harmful avenue medicine like painkillers, which teenagers purchase on-line illicitly. It was behind 588 deaths final 12 months of California youths aged 15-24.
Ed Ternan mentioned what occurred to 22-year-old Charlie, and the work his group is doing now to forestall extra fentanyl youth deaths.
Q: Are you able to inform me a bit of about your son, Charlie?
A: Yeah, Charlie was our youngest of three…. He attracted lots of people to him. He had tons of pals, and would join pals with one another. And yeah, so he was a very good soul.
Q: Are you able to stroll me by what occurred within the lead as much as when he handed away?
A: Charlie died on Could 14th, 2020. So it was within the first couple of months of the pandemic…He was residing with us for a few months…. He was doing wonderful. After which a couple of month earlier than he was because of graduate, he and a few pals determined to return to Santa Clara (College). He lived off campus as a senior, so he returned to his fraternity home… And that’s when after being there a couple of week, Charlie determined… that he would play some video video games and look ahead to a 5 o’clock job interview that afternoon. And so when many of the home left (to exit), he requested round… if anyone had any Xanax, as a result of he was going to simply take a Xanax and sit back and play video video games… Someone got here ahead and mentioned that they knew a plug (supplier) on Snapchat. And so they related with this particular person, they usually purchased numerous Xanax bars and a Percocet. Now Charlie was acquainted with Percocet due to a again surgical procedure he had… The final time anyone talked to him was about 3:15 (p.m.) And he by no means made the 5 o’clock telephone name for the job interview… We all know he took one tablet, and it turned out to be a counterfeit manufactured from fentanyl.
Q: And so from there, did you fairly shortly get a name from certainly one of his fraternity brothers? Or how did you hear?
A: It was horrible. We bought a knock on the door about 10 o’clock that evening from some pricey pals and our pastor… After a sleepless evening, the following morning we bought a name from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputy. And he mentioned – we’ll look ahead to the tox (toxicology) report. However I’m going to inform you now that is fentanyl. And there have been seven deaths from these M30s (fentanyl laced tablets) within the final 10 days right here in Santa Clara County. And we strongly suspect that Charlie goes to be quantity eight.
Q: At that cut-off date do you know a lot about fentanyl?
A: It’s not like I by no means heard (of) it, however I actually didn’t give it some thought within the context of avenue medicine.
Q: So when did you determine to discovered the nonprofit Tune for Charlie? What was the early objective and the place did you focus your efforts in these early days?
A: We formally established Tune for Charlie in December of 2020. That was simply six or seven months after Charlie handed… We related with different households and located that it was occurring throughout the nation… And we principally mentioned we wish to warn you all and everybody else, that these counterfeit tablets are on the market… We partnered with the social media corporations to place out consciousness campaigns in a short time.
Q: So how did the conversations go along with the tech corporations?
A: We began by reaching out to the folks at Snap. That’s the place Charlie and his good friend related with the supplier. And we bought in contact with the executives there and we had been in a position to persuade them to work with us. Keep in mind… in 2020 and early 2021, it was not extensively identified that fentanyl had moved from the heroin provide into these counterfeit tablets…. we began working with some executives at Google. We had been launched to folks at Meta. In fact, Google folks launched us to the YouTube crew. The YouTube of us launched us to folks at TikTok. So by mid 2021, we had formal working relationships with all the foremost social media platforms and Google/YouTube.
Q: Are you able to discuss a few of the some concrete examples of ways in which they’ve actually helped your group
A: Advert credit. So advertisers will purchase area on TikTok or YouTube or Snapchat. However these corporations additionally donate the advert area to sure nonprofits and philanthropy teams. So we’ve gotten, you understand, the equal of a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} of advert credit from these platforms.
Q: I’ve spoken to oldsters who’re concerned in lawsuits towards Snapchat… They’re actually upset nearly how the unfold of a few of these tablets is facilitated by a few of these social media platforms. What’s your tackle that?
A: Effectively, it’s actually an issue. And it’s a drawback for Snap, and Meta, and TikTok. So then the query is: Do they realize it’s an issue and are they working to unravel the issue? And my expertise is that, sure, they’re … taking it very severely. And within the final couple of years, they’ve made dramatic enhancements in how they discover and take down drug content material and share info with regulation enforcement… So what we have to do, and what’s occurring behind the scenes, is these corporations are working collectively at a sure degree to share indicators. As a result of one factor that’ll occur is a supplier will promote his or her menu on say Instagram the place the submit will keep up, after which they’ll bounce over to Snapchat, the place the content material disappears, to rearrange the meet up.
Q: There’s many native and state politicians who suppose that we should always improve penalties on drug sellers, significantly fentanyl sellers, and significantly those that have a bigger provide of fentanyl. What’s your ideas on the present debate?
A: At Tune for Charlie, we don’t take positions publicly on these legislative points as a result of it’s simply not our lane. We actually give attention to schooling and consciousness. (However) I personally have opinions… These chemical compounds are extraordinarily potent, which makes them far more worthwhile for the producers who make them illicitly, for traffickers who carry them into the nation, and the sellers who promote them regionally… My place is compassion for customers, penalties for sellers.
Q: What occurred to the supplier in your son’s case?
A: I in all probability shouldn’t give an excessive amount of element, however he was a juvenile on the time of the transaction, which put it in an entire totally different class. He’s now an grownup. So any penalties that got here his means have now been expunged from his file. He’s nonetheless strolling the streets. He was by no means charged with something having to do with murder. They had been in a position to cost him with drug promoting and that’s all.
Q: And so what do you make of that? On a private degree?
A: , we gave up on that very early on. My spouse, Mary, and I, and Charlie’s two older siblings determined that we can’t put our vitality into quote-unquote, “looking for justice.” It was not going to be wholesome for us processing our grief and our psychological well-being. So we actually let that go. We predict that was a very good resolution… Anybody who has gotten a conviction will say it didn’t carry my little one again, and I awoke the following morning actually not feeling any higher… We focus our energies on the attention and schooling facet to forestall these tragedies.
Q: Have you ever gotten success out of that work of teaching folks and spreading consciousness?
A: We now have. We’re making nice strides… We’re getting the message out very efficiently… And our strategy has been validated by the truth that the California Division of Well being Care Providers reached out to us in December, and requested us to assist them. And so in August, we’re launching a program now to assist educate dad and mom… So some teaching recommendations on how you can carry it (fentanyl) up… how you can preserve the dialogue going. After which what to do… the place you may get Naloxone (a drugs which reverses the results of a fentanyl overdose) or the place you may ship your child in California when you’re involved that there’s psychological well being points and possibly some substance difficulty.
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Ed Ternan
Age: 62
Title: President and co-founder of Tune for Charlie
Residence: Pasadena
Training: MBA at Pepperdine College, Undergraduate diploma from Santa Clara College.
Household: Spouse, Mary, who’s the opposite co-founder of Tune for Charlie. They’ve two kids, who’re 32 and 29. Charlie would have been 25 this 12 months.
5 quick information about Ed Ternan
- Avid reader
- Pupil of Stoic philosophy
- Music lover, particularly piano rock
- Homebody; sad traveler
- Married into a big legacy household at Santa Clara College
