Fake Adderall joins vapes as growing danger for high schoolers. These teens are fighting back

While sinking for the finals, a teenager from Massachusetts western offered his classmate Adderall: a pill that he obtained from a mutual connection on social media. He said he trusted him.

“That really helps,” the teenager told his friend. “Trust me.”

But the pill was not adderall. It was a fake pill with Fentanyl, a mortal synthetic opioid. And then he found himself unconscious.

Fortunately, the stage was a video created by the Youth Advisory Board of the Hampden District Prosecutor. Is called “You cannot study if you do not wake up. “”

But today is a real problem that adolescents and adults have.

In 2021, Clifton Dubois, 19, died from an overdose on Rhode Island, reported NPR. He had bought faken adderall last night, according to the police report. I was with Fentanyl.

“He thought of moving away from street drugs … and only taking pills, as if he were better,” said Jennifer Dubois, his mother NPR. “I really believe that Cliff thought he was taking something safe.”

Two students from Ohio State University died after taking a fake adderall by 2022, The New York Times reported. And Two men in Massachusetts were accused after officials said they used a Pill Press To make counterfeit pills, including fake oxycodone pads containing fentanil, fake adderall tablets containing metamfetamine and counterfeit pads that contain clonazolam.

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By 2024, the administration of the US drug application took more than 60 million fake pills with Fentanyl and almost 8,000 pounds of fentanil powder. 2024 seizures are equivalent to more than 380 million lethal doses of Fentanil. Fentanyl convulsions of 2025 represent more than 119 million fatal doses.

The DEA considers 2 mg of fentanyl a potentially fatal dose.

“There is a lot to happen for our young people and around our young people, who I think is different from what was even ten years ago, and 20 and 30 years ago, when we grew as community parents or leaders,” said Hampden district prosecutor, Anthony Gulluni. “Faked pills and use of things like Adderall, misuse, are huge problems that can really be catastrophic.”

But teenagers work with Gulluni and their office to make the difference in Western Massachusetts.

During the last school year, 55 students from 24 schools were part of the Youth Advisory Board this year.

Students, grades 10-12, were divided into seven teams for different topics, such as substance use, social networks, mental health and healthy relationships. Students create projects in their songs, including cookbooks, murals and videos.

Students introduced their projects At an annual conference on Thursday and provided his recommendations to school representatives, the application of the law and community groups.

“Because we know [issues teens are facing]He, not only here today, is today, but throughout the year in school systems, school administrators, teachers, police officers so that they can address it in their communities, it is extremely useful, “Gulluni told Masslive after the Thursday conference.

And, although they are heavy topics, Adderall use and steam are something students see daily in their schools, several students told Masslive.

“Every year, more substances are being used,” said Jaelle Dyer, 17, a senior at the central Springfield High School. “Things that may not be common before are more and more common. [Percocet]Adderall, that’s all that people use now. ”

Students number 1 in the site see their peers use substances, such as vaping, are at school: classrooms, bathrooms and hallways, said 17-year-old Joy-Lee Key-Washington, a senior at the Central School Springfield High. This came from the 191 vote of his colleagues. The second was social networks and the third was on the parts.

“This is what our youth is exposed to every day,” he told the crowd.

Another student, Rachel Roblinski, of Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School in Palmer, echoed his concerns.

“Every day. Every day I am at school, I see something,” he told Masslive. “Look at someone with a vape, see someone in buying -no one.”

And his colleagues are frustrated because it affects their learning environment.

Almost half of Washington students spoke with schools that do not enough to educate students in the pressure of peers and the consumption of substances.

“This tells us that something is missing,” he told the crowd.

He told the crowd that this problem “demands our attention, action and understanding”.

The group also created an almost 40 -page document To help parents understand some of these problems with substance abuse.

“I think parents don’t know where [vapes] They are hidden, how they are used, how they smell and what forms are found because they are in various ways, “Key-Washington told Masslive.” So, in our guide, we broken out how they look, how they work, where people hide them, only to create awareness and education and emphasize support and education. “”

Students care that adults in their lives and community leaders have no idea how serious things.

“I don’t think we know the evil we have dramatically. I don’t think we realize that when people take substances, the speed that can affect someone’s mind and the number of substances that begin to take people,” said Roblinski.

When schools are trying to approach the problem, adolescents said that the answer is often punishment, not support. But this approach doesn’t work.

“They only have problems, suspend them and bring them again,” Key-Washington said. “They do not educate them on what they really experience, what they really do and what they really are hooked and helpless.”

However, schools have to focus on a better education, he suggested.

“Especially deepening about why it is bad,” said Dyer. “They just say he is looked at, but he doesn’t emphasize why. And I think that’s why so many students use it because they really don’t know the things that happen to you when you use the products.”

And all the teens in the program want to continue to be part of the solution and a source of support. There are people, such as Dyer and Key-Washington, who can help.

“You don’t have to run to substances to feel the need to relieve any pain, whatever you have,” Dyer said.

For all projects, click here.