Fentanyl killed their kids at college. Now Colorado schools are changing.
The alert shared in Boulder a few weeks ago warned of a powdered form of fentanyl, its texture similar to drywall plaster, and its color pink or tan, like sand.
Boulder law enforcement officers found it near a dead body. They told the county health department, which released the public health alert five days later. The University of Colorado posted the alert on its website and Facebook page the same day, warning students to beware of the deadly powder.
This is what they wanted, the parents who have pushed CU and the rest of the state’s universities and colleges for two years to do more to protect students from fentanyl poisoning.
Only they want more. And they want the warnings to come faster.
The group, organized by the nonprofit Blue Rising Community, includes the parents of five young adults who died from fentanyl poisoning. After their deaths, the parents questioned why state universities had not done more to warn students, especially when local authorities knew that a particularly deadly batch of counterfeit oxycodone or Xanax containing fentanyl was circulating.