This California father lost his son to fentanyl. Now he’s trying to save others

Ed Ternan and his wife Mary hold a photo of their son Charlie, who died of fentanyl poisoning at the age of 22. Ed, along with his wife Mary, are co-founders of Song for Charlie, a family-run non-profit charity dedicated to raising awareness about placebos made with fentanyl. (Photo credit: Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Ed Ternan had barely heard of fentanyl when his son overdosed on a deadly opioid in May 2020. Today, he is president and co-founder of a California non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of fentanyl among teens and young people across the country. . The non-profit organization Ternan co-founded with his wife Mary is named after their son. A song for Charlie.

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and is often mixed with other less dangerous street drugs, such as pain relievers that teens buy illegally online. Last year, it caused the deaths of 588 young people ages 15 to 24 in California.

Ed Ternan talks about what happened to 22-year-old Charlie and what his organization is doing to prevent more fentanyl-related deaths among young people.

question: Can you tell me a little about your son Charlie?

answer: Yes, Charlie was the youngest of three siblings… He fascinated many people. He had many friends and kept his friends together. And yes, he was a really good soul.

question: Can you explain what happened before he died?

answer: Charlie passed away on May 14, 2020. I mean, it was the first few months of the pandemic…he lived with us for a few months…. he was fine And about a month before he was due to graduate, he decided to go back to Santa Clara with some friends. He lived off campus as a senior in college, so he moved back to the fraternity house… after spending about a week there, Charlie played video games and waited for a job interview at 5pm that day. decided to So when most of the people in the house went out (to go out), he asked around…if anyone had a Xanax, he just took a Xanax to relax and play video games Because it was meant to be… someone came forward and said they knew Snapchat plugs (dealers). And they hooked up with this guy and bought some Xanax his bars and percosets. Now that Charlie had back surgery, he knew Percocet well…the last time someone spoke to him was around 3:15pm. And he never called at 5 for his job interview…we know he got the interview was a pill but it was a counterfeit made with fentanyl turned out to be good.

question: So, right from there, got a call from one of his brothers in the fraternity? Or how did you hear that?

answer: It was terrible. At about 10:00 that night, there was a knock on my door from my dear friends and the pastor…the morning after a sleepless night, I got a call from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy. And he said – we wait for the toxins (toxicology) report. But I’ll tell you now, this is fentanyl. And here in Santa Clara County, there have been 7 deaths from these M30’s in the last 10 days. And we strongly suspect Charlie will come in at number eight.

question: Did you know much about fentanyl at that point?

answer: Not that I haven’t heard of it, but never thought about it in the context of street drugs.

question: So when did you decide to start the nonprofit Song for Charlie? What were your early goals and what did you focus on early on?

answer: We officially launched Song for Charlie in December 2020. That was just six or seven months after Charlie passed away…we got in touch with other family members and found out it was happening all over the country…and we were basically , said we wanted to warn all of you and everyone else that these counterfeit pills are out there…we partnered with social media companies to run an awareness campaign very quickly .

question: So what happened to the conversations with tech companies?

answer: We started by reaching out to the people at Snap. There Charlie and his friends connected with the dealer. And we were able to get in touch with the executives there and persuade them to work with us. Remember… In 2020 and early 2021, it was not widely known that fentanyl was moved from the heroin supply to these counterfeit pills…. We started working with some Google executives. I was introduced to the people at Meta. Of course, a Google rep introduced us to his YouTube team. A YouTube guy introduced us to his TikTok guys. Therefore, by mid-2021, we have established formal partnerships with all major social media platforms and Google/YouTube.

question: Can you talk about a specific example that has really helped your organization?

answer: advertising credits. So advertisers buy space on TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. However, these companies also donate their advertising space to certain nonprofits and charities. So we get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising credits from these platforms.

question: I’ve spoken to parents involved in the lawsuits against Snapchat…they are genuinely outraged about how the spread of these drugs is facilitated through some of these social media platforms. Masu. what do you think about that?

answer: Well, it certainly is a problem. And that’s also a problem for Snap, Meta, and TikTok. So the question is, do they know it’s a problem and are they working to fix it? And in my experience, yes, they take it very seriously. And in the last few years, they’ve dramatically improved how they find and remove drug content and share information with law enforcement…so what we need to do and behind the scenes What’s happening is that these companies are working together to share a signal at some level. Because one thing that happens is the dealer promotes his menu on Instagram, the post stays there, then he flies to Snapchat, where the content disappears, and he arranges a meet-and-greet. .

question: Many local and state politicians believe that penalties should be tougher for drug dealers, especially fentanyl dealers, especially those with high fentanyl supplies. What are your thoughts on the current debate?