Birdielight: Beth & Olivia Weinstock

Beth and Olivia Weinstock, Founders of Birdielight, join The Five-O-One to discuss the dangers of fentanyl. Fentanyl is the number one cause of death in 18-45 year olds. BirdieLight saves lives by educating young people about the danger of unintentional fentanyl ingestion, and by empowering them with tools to detect fentanyl before they ingest.

To learn more about this work visit www.birdielight.org.

Talia: Beth, I want to talk about Eli. I know your son was the inspiration for this work. Can you tell us a little bit about him?

Beth: Eli's my oldest son, I am a mother of four. Eli was 20 when he died, a sophomore at American University. He died last March, March 3 2021. We're coming up on the one-year anniversary. He was majoring in Marketing and Communications. He had just joined a fraternity and essentially he was thriving and starting his adult life. We'd seen him 10 days previously at a bar mitzvah celebration for a family in Florida. But what do you say about a lifetime? He was a gregarious guy. He was a gorgeous baby. He was highly energetic and a bright child. During high school, he made interesting movies starring his friends and his little sister. In high school, he started an Instagram account devoted to the video game GTA, which amassed 1000s of followers, most of them middle school boys. at his memorial, most of his friends talked about how skillful he was at bringing people together from a variety of different friend groups. And I always admired how creative he was. He was very nonconforming. In the end, I think his high level of energy and his impulsivity is most likely what led to his death. It takes just one decision in the age of fentanyl poisoning.

Talia: I'm so sorry for your loss. No one should have to lose a child for any reason. But obviously, it's all the more devastating that the cause was unintentionally by fentanyl. Olivia, I'm not exactly sure what fentanyl is, I know it's highly addictive.

Olivia: Super addictive. It's a super powerful synthetic opioid. And what that means is that it can be manufactured basically by anyone.

Talia: Do you know what it's made from?

Olivia: Yeah, I'm not exactly sure on the exact chemical breakdown. But it's something that's not, you know, agriculturally dependent. So it can be manufactured in a lab or in someone's basement and a lot of different strains can be produced just by small changes. So it's really easy to create, and it's also really cheap to manufacture.

Talia: Is there like a look to it? Like, if you were in the presence of it, would you be able to identify it? Or is it hard to detect?

Olivia: It's really hard to detect. Fentanyl can be added to anything and what it's being added to right now are pills that are falsely labeled as Xanax or Adderall or Oxycodone, also known as Percocet. And no one is able to tell that these pills contain fentanyl because they're labeled as those other pill types.

Talia: And so other drugs are being laced with fentanyl, I guess because it's so addictive that it makes those other drugs equally addictive?

Olivia: So this is kind of the big question that we always get. It's so cheap to manufacture, so if drug dealers cut specific pills or powders or whatever injectables with fentanyl, they can produce more of the substance and sell more of it. And then like you said, it's highly addictive. So, if their clientele take it and survive, they become dependent on the drug and come back for more.

Talia: So of those who do overdose from fentanyl, how many of them are aware that they are ingesting fentanyl?

Beth: Well, the numbers are massive. And this generation has been affected in numbers that we've never seen in this country before. In the 12-month period in between March of 2020 and March of 2021, 100,000 people died of what's labeled as a drug overdose, and over 70,000 of them died due to opioid related deaths, and most of those were fentanyl related. No one really knows an exact number of how many of those 70,000 actually knew they were taking fentanyl. But the crisis is increasing so rapidly because of the number of people who take something completely unrelated to fentanyl, for example, like a fake Xanax, and then they die from fentanyl poisoning. That's why the numbers are going up so rapidly. But an actual number of how many people knew something had fentanyl in it, I would venture to guess is relatively few.

Talia: So my sister just broke her leg two weeks ago, and in the hospital when she asked for a painkiller, all they offered her was fentanyl. I just couldn't believe that. They were offering a 26-year-old woman, you know, her only option is fentanyl.

Beth: Yeah, and it's hard because it does have a role in modern medicine that's very important. You know, it treats cancer pain very effectively. They use it for a sedative. Say for example, if you go in to have a standard colonoscopy, you might get some fentanyl, but on the level of micrograms. And what's killing people in the fake pills, or the cocaine or methamphetamine is in the on the level of milligrams. So, we're talking a very, very different drug than what they use in the hospital to treat pain or sedate people. And my 14-year-old broke her arm this past summer. And they gave her some fentanyl during the sedative process to set her broken bone. And it was very emotional for me because I had just gone through this tragedy. And they needed to give her this medicine to set her broken bone. And just to hear the word was very alarming to me. So, I understand the way your sister felt. What happened is that this very powerful painkiller that modern medicine could use in controlled ways got hijacked. And what people are manufacturing and putting in fake pills or cooking illicit substances is not even close to what's being used in the hospital.

Talia: So I want to talk about Birdielight, your organization that you created, it's new, you guys launched officially in September. What are some of the things that you guys are doing to try to mitigate the risks of fentanyl? Among, I guess college students are really your target audience, I would imagine.

Beth: Yeah, our target audience is aged 15 to 25, that's where we see the most rapid increase in fatalities, so that's where we're focusing our efforts. Of course, that's the demographic that Eli was also so we want to be true to our story. The amazing momentum we've had has just been so humbling. And so remarkable. There's a lot of fear right now, parents are scared, students are scared. And it's alarming to me how little, young people really know about fentanyl. So when we launched Birdielight, we made our mission to educate young people on the dangers of fentanyl, where it's found, how to test for it, how to avoid it, and how to reverse its effects. We go into high schools, college campuses, parent groups, PTAs, fraternities, sororities, student groups, private groups, whatever is necessary. And we talked to them about really basic scientific information, and how to move yourself closer to safe and some of our most powerful presentations are to parents and educators. Speaking to parents can be very powerful. What most people don't know is that fentanyl is found in a surprising number of drugs. And five years ago, this wasn't happening. So, we're playing catch up with the information and our mission at Birdielight is to get in front of as many people as possible and just spread information.

Olivia: Yeah, and on that note of it being such a new issue, we always talk about the degree of separation from someone who has died of a fentanyl overdose. And for most people, that's more than one degree. Unfortunately for us, it's not. But I was the same way during college, it wasn't a normal conversation, it wasn't something that people talked about at parties, so this is an education that people are now playing catch up to try to get -- so that it can be a conversation on college campuses in high schools, even before kids get to college and then also after graduation.

Talia: But in addition to the educational piece of your work, you're also trying to get these fentanyl testing strips in the hands of these high school and college students. How do the strips work exactly?

Beth: You can think of common home pregnancy tests where you get a pink line positive, negative, or maybe now I should use the example of a COVID home test. They're similar, it's the same type of technology. So essentially, what happens is if a student or young person is going to use a substance, let's use the example of a Xanax or what they think is a Xanax, but probably isn't. So the strips work like this, you put the pill that you're about to take in a small amount of water, for example, a lid on the top of a two liter soda bottle, and you dissolve the pill in the water. Once it's dissolved, you put the end of the strip in there, and you let it sit for 30 seconds, and then you lay the strip flat and watch it for a minute. The lines will tell you if it has fentanyl in it – positive or negative, it's very straightforward. But we always talk to kids as if these are just part of your toolbox, the strip's can't be the end all be all. And one of the magical things I think that happens when you start talking about testing your drugs, and you start talking with young people about test strips, is that it takes on a gravity, a seriousness to it. And I think that the education around the strip's often even ends up being a deterrent to using these substances at all. Because if I'm talking to an 18 year old about testing your pill for something that could kill you, a lot of times, they second guess it and they think maybe this isn't worth it. And so we have two goals: one is to arm them with information, but also to bring the gravity of the information to them so that perhaps they might not do it at all. It forces them to slow down, and think for a second if you have this tool in your pocket, maybe think twice about the decision you're about to make and it's those quick decisions that are killing people so rapidly with fentanyl.

Talia: Are these test strips 100% effective? 

Olivia: So they're not like any clinical tests, they can't be 100% effective. The test strips are said to be from 92-96% effective in detecting fentanyl. That being said there is so little research done in this area on fentanyl in general, but specifically the strips. And so a lot of our work is aimed at hopefully increasing awareness and in putting the information and gravity of this problem in the ears of people who can perform research and figure out how effective these strips are. And if they're a tool that can save tons and tons of lives.

Talia: So I've heard a lot about Narcan being used on campuses. Can you tell our listeners what that is?

Beth: Narcan is a opioid reversal agent. It's a chemical that will bind to the receptors in your brain that normally would be holding the opioid — whatever it is morphine, fentanyl, etc. And the Narcan displaces it off these receptors in your brain. So essentially, any effect you would have gotten from the opioid is reversed by the Narcan. The most common form of Narcan that you see now is a nasal spray. And this is maybe 10 years ahead of the cultural shift relative to fentanyl test strips. So in the last 10 years, you've seen lots of Narcan being distributed on college campuses, it's becoming more commonplace. It's undergone this cultural shift that we're hoping to also make with the test strips. But the two should go hand in hand always. And we tell people, if you're going to test your drugs for fentanyl, and they come up negative and you decide to move forward, you should number one, always tell a friend that you're going to be taking something or snorting something or using something and then also have that same friend know where the Narcan is. So then, just in case the test didn't pick up the fentanyl, someone's there to reverse it.

Talia: And where exactly can students purchase Narcan?

Beth: I think in nearly every state you can get in a pharmacy without a prescription, definitely in New York and Ohio. And so, I found on campuses, sometimes very civic minded students will just carry Narcan with them just in case — I think it's so smart. It's sort of like the condom conversation that was, you know, a cultural shift back in the 80s and 90s. In some states that test strips are still considered drug paraphernalia. That being said, very few states prosecute it, but in some states, it's still on the books. In Ohio — where we live — there's legislation being introduced to reverse that law. So we don't worry about it. It's not prosecuted. One of the things though, that we do worry about is if the legislations not reversed, then we might have trouble getting some state grants for Birdielight. So we're very invested in the idea that this law get repealed. And I think it well, the momentum is heading that way. But it can inhibit fundraising on our part if it stays on the books. 

Talia: And if our listeners want to support Birdielight monetarily, what are the costs associated with your operation?

Beth: Well, we're new we're four months old and in our infancy, but there's so much momentum and growth, and what a donation would do for us is purchase test trips. That's our primary expenditure, in addition to travel. We are aiming to be a national organization, and we already have several events scheduled around the country. And so the cost associated with that for us is just travel, advertising, social media, as well as the strip's — but we have big goals. And one of our goals, of course, is to create a standardized curriculum across the country for all high schools and colleges to use when it comes to fentanyl safety. We have a dream to create a Birdie box for every campus on the country, so that they don't need us there. They can use their Birdie box, which would include a video, free test strips, etc. So we have big dreams. And of course, that always takes money. But right now in our infancy what a donation would do would be to fuel our growth, and get our message in the ears of students and young people across the country. 

Talia: Beth and Olivia, any final thoughts for our listeners?

Beth: Well, I want to be clear about one thing, and that is — not to end on that note that's just so intensely serious — but I do want, especially for any parents listening to, for them to understand that this crisis, this Fentanyl crisis, is going to define a generation. The age range right now from 15 to 24. I'm calling them the fentanyl generation, just because of the sheer numbers of fatalities we've seen. I always do this when I speak to groups, and I want to say it here just so it hits home for parents in my age demographic — on the entire Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, there's 58,000 names for an entire war that went on for 10 years. And just last year, in 12 months, we lost 100,000 young people to overdose, the scale of this tragedy is almost incomprehensible. And I think that if I could leave with anything is that every parent or maybe soon to be parent, anyone needs to talk to their kids, their cousins, their nieces, their nephews about this crisis.

Olivia: We're really trying to play catch up, we want to get to the students directly as quickly as possible. So if there are listeners who are involved in Greek life, or other college clubs or large organizations, who would like us to come speak to them and arm them with these tools, we would love to hear from you. We also really emphasize a peer to peer model. So us being able to educate a group of people who can then educate and hand out tools to more students on a university or even outside of it is is definitely our goal. So please feel free to reach out to us if you are listening and have a group of people who could benefit from this message.