Our view: Protecting the youngest victims of the opioid crisis | Editorials

The most tragic victims of the opioid crisis are the unwitting. An overdose trend that has claimed thousands of lives, including more than 1,500 in Massachusetts during the first nine months of this year, sadly counts children among its victims. In many cases they’ve stumbled into contact with dangerous drugs, prescribed or otherwise, by accident.

Authorities are not yet saying if that’s what happened to Precious Wallaces, a sixth-grader at the Consentino School in Haverhill who became extremely ill, very quickly, in the early hours Saturday, Dec. 15. The 11-year-old “ate a bunch of candy,” according to a 911 caller, before getting violently sick.

Precious was taken from an apartment in Lawrence to the hospital, then transferred to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where she died three days later. The Essex County district attorney’s office has acknowledged exposure to toxic substances, including fentanyl, as a possible cause under investigation.

If that’s what happened, she would not be the first child in our region so stricken. Last spring police in Windham arrested a couple whose 20-month-old son died from ingesting opioids and cocaine. During an investigation of the boy’s sudden illness on May 25, police say his mother, Christen Gelinas, told them he’d been playing outside when she noticed him with a “clear plastic baggie containing a white, rock-like substance.” The toddler died shortly after being taken to the Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H.

Gelinas and Joshua Garvey were initially arrested on charges of drug possession and distribution, after police say they found heroin, cocaine, crack and Suboxone in their Manchester apartment. The couple now face charges in connection with the death of their son.

Any fatal overdose is tragic. Those afflicting children are especially wrenching since the victims are blind to the cause. How can a child understand the potency of opioids such as fentanyl, which are so powerful in such small amounts that first-responders approach areas where the drugs are thought to be present with same caution they use around hazardous industrial materials?

Exposure doesn’t always happen at home, either. For Alton Banks, age 10, investigators believe it occurred in his neighborhood, somewhere along his walk home from a community swimming pool in Miami last year. He got sick shortly after arriving home and died at the hospital later that evening. An autopsy confirmed the boy had fentanyl in his body.

Cases of children who die from opioid exposure attract a lot of attention — the death of Alton Banks was a national news story — but research suggests many more instances of lesser known, non-fatal overdoses. Those cases have been increasing, just as they have among adults.

A study reported earlier this year by the American Academy of Pediatrics described a growing number of children sent to the hospital because of opioid exposure. Researchers looking at national data drawn from 31 children’s hospitals found 1,504 cases of opioid poisoning from 2012 to 2015 — up from 797 in 2004 to 2007. The study actually noted a slight decline in the number of opioid-related deaths among those patients.

The research underscores the need to fortify opioid abuse prevention programs for teenagers and adolescents. Those writing the study also emphasized the vulnerability of young children to accidental exposure given their “exploratory nature.” Young children, in other words, are prone to put things in their mouths. They touch things and put their fingers in their mouths.

Unfortunately there is no absolute shield for children from the risk of opioid exposure. There absolutely should be accountability for adults who introduce illegal drugs into their worlds, or who allow children to wander into danger.

Still, at another level, these sad cases underscore the urgency in addressing the opioid crisis throughout our communities. The best protection for our children is to reduce the possibility of stumbling across these drugs, if we cannot eliminate it entirely.