Man shot following Kansas police chase; Witness shares experience
24 October 2023
MULVANE, Kan. (KSNW) — This week is Red Ribbon Week, and local officials are reminding the community that One Pill Can Kill.
One pill killed Teresa Coppola’s son, Logan.
“He was given a fake Percocet,” Coppola said. “Like most kids who experiment, and they will not make the best choices, but he did.”
Coppola hadn’t really heard of fentanyl until it killed her son. He was only 19 when he was poisoned.
“There’s no room for experimentation anymore,” Cappola said. “The choices that we make, children, could cost this generation their lives very quickly.”
Logan was a brother, son and friend. Coppola describes her experience as gut-wrenching. She wants people to be aware before it’s too late.
When she was in school, Red Ribbon Week was no big deal. But now, it’s an opportunity she doesn’t want people to miss, especially at a young age.
“If we don’t reach the kids now, they could be the next ones,” Coppola said. “There’s no room for experimentation anymore. One bad choice will kill you.”
Since Red Ribbon began in the 80s, drugs have changed. Sheriff Jeff Easter says in the 90s, cocaine was a local epidemic. Then, meth was the drug of choice until fentanyl hit the market a little over two years ago.
“Fentanyl has pretty much taken over the market here in Wichita,” Sheriff Easter said. “And so we still have the other drugs, and the other scary thing is that all the other drugs, including marijuana, we have found from cases that we’ve seized marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, that’s been laced with fentanyl.”
Sheriff Easter says the most important thing to do is have a discussion with your kids about the dangers of fentanyl.
“From a parent’s standpoint, you got to have a discussion about alcohol, marijuana, fentanyl,” Sheriff Easter said. “All of that stuff is in play because it’s all detrimental to us. The scary thing is is like yeah, that youth are going to experiment with marijuana and alcohol. Again, the problem with that is that we’re finding marijuana, it’s laced with fentanyl. So it’s no longer just to get high, and nothing’s going to happen to you.”