Marin family turns fentanyl overdose grief into activism

Greenbrae resident Trevor Leopold died of an overdose in 2019 in his dorm room during his freshman year at Sonoma State University. He was 18.

Leopold, who had been struggling with drug addiction, took what he thought was oxycodone, a prescription pain medication. Instead it was a counterfeit pill laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be 100 times more potent than morphine.

After Michelle and Jeff Leopold lost their son, the Marin couple turned their grief into activism. The owners of Marin Ace Hardware in San Rafael have been hosting classes at their hardware stores across the Bay Area on how to administer Narcan, or naloxone, a substance that can keep an overdose victim alive.

In partnership with the Spahr Center, a Corte Madera nonprofit, customers of the San Rafael store were invited to participate in a session Wednesday. The event coincided with International Overdose Awareness Day, which is recognized annually on Aug. 31. This is the third year they've hosted overdose awareness events.

"What we want to do is educate the community, and remove the stigma," Michelle Leopold said. "Having Narcan can save a life."

In a statement, Jeff Leopold said, "we hope that during this 2022 Fentanyl and Overdose Awareness period, we might help other mothers and fathers avoid the loss and pain that Michelle and I now know, around the accidental death by fentanyl poisoning, of our beloved first-born."

Michelle Leopold said her son started using drugs when he was 14 and became addicted. As parents, they tried everything, she said, including sending him to a residential rehabilitation program in Utah during his junior and senior years of high school.

According to the California Overdose Surveillance Database, Marin had 62 overdose deaths in 2021, up from 30 deaths in 2018. At least half involved fentanyl, officials said.

"That's more than one death per week through 2021," said Dr. Matt Willis, the Marin County public health o fficer. "So, it's clearly a crisis and it has really been driven by one thing, and that's fentanyl."

Since 2013, counterfeit prescription pills made of fentanyl have caused thousands of deaths in the U.S. Initially, fentanyl made by labs in China was easily shipped to dealers in the U.S., who made them into counterfeit pills using presses and stamps.

Unlike a brick of heroin or a bag of cocaine, synthetic "fentapills" are undetectable by dogs and can easily be sent in the mail.

Increasingly, Mexican drug cartels have seized upon this opportunity, and are flooding the U.S. market with them. Hundreds of millions of fentapills are available, selling for $20 to $30 a pop.

Fentanyl was originally designed as a synthetic opioid for prescription pain management, but it's extremely potent, Willis said. But when manufactured in illegal labs, no one is regulating the dosage and "a few grains of powder could put it over the edge," he said.

He said the county's goal is to make Narcan is close at hand. Working with RxSafe Marin, founded in 2014, the county has installed Narcan dispensing machines at the Marin County Jail and the county social services campus at 120 N. Redwood Drive in San Rafael.

Additionally, the county has partnered with the group to host training days like the one hosted by the Leopolds, and distributed Narcan to participants.

Leopold compared the life-saving drug to a fire extinguisher. She said people who buy extinguishers are not judged, just as people who have Narcan should not be.

"It's a life-saving device," she said. "There should be no stigma."

Andy Fyne of the Spahr Center demostrates how to use Narcan to treat an opioid overdose at Marin Ace Hardware's Overdose Awareness event in San Rafael, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

Andy Fyne, the Spahr Center's harm reduction coordinator, who led the Narcan training session on Wednesday, said an overdose victim cannot administer Narcan to themselves and that every household should have Narcan in their first-aid kits.

He added that people think Narcan is only a tool needed for recreational drug users.

"You can encounter an overdose any time at any place," Fyne said.

For example, Fyne said someone could accidentally take too much pain medication because they forgot when they took their last dose, or a small child could accidentally get into a pill box, or other scenarios.

What's more, he said, the Narcan medication can do no harm. He explained that it will have no effect on a person unless the person is overdosing on opioids.

"When I teach about overdose prevention, I kind of put it on the bystander," he said. "This is something that bystanders do, and it can save lives."

More information on Michelle and Jeff Leopold's activism is at wearenotalone.community.

The Bay Area News Group contributed to this report.