FOX26 News brings you continuing coverage of the dangers of Fentanyl.
Now, we are partnering with the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools to bring you this report highlighting the partnership between schools, law enforcement, and the County of Fresno to educate communities on the dangers of this drug.
In this segment, a family’s battle with addiction and their son’s road to recovery.
Andrea Murphy Carvajal describes her son as being precocious, sweet, and loveable, and like any mom, it hurt to see him use drugs.
“I would say it was probably junior high, probably seventh or eighth grade,” said Carvajal. “He had gotten caught smoking marijuana with a friend. That’s where it started, it was surprising, I did not expect that he was going to have a problem with addiction.”
They were tough-loving parents, they sent him to treatment programs, and drug-tested him at home. In high school, however, he was introduced to pills and opioids.
“As soon as I did Narcos, Oxy, I loved it and Fentanyl was just more potent,” said Julian Carvajal. “It was just an opioid that was stronger, which is what I liked about it.”
They put him in treatment and also sought help from Flindt Anderson, an expert on addiction and substance abuse with P.A.I.N.
But the decision to stop had to come from Julian.
“You’ve really got to have hit your bottom and be willing to do what you need to do,” said Carvajal. “Julian obviously was at that point where he just couldn’t live that way and knew he was going to die if he didn’t get well.”
Julian mentioned that he really wanted to stop abusing drugs, but he couldn’t.
And that is what those who work with addicts want people to understand, that it’s difficult to stop.
“People need to understand or at least try to understand the addict, the person that is going through this, how it affects us, how it affects our minds, our bodies,” said Anderson.
Julian has been sober for 15 months and his mother says she’s proud of her son.
“I don’t know, I’ll never totally have my guard down but I also know that it’s in God’s hands and Julian’s, he knows what he needs to do to stay sober and works a really good program,” said Carvajal. “I pray to God he makes that decision one day at a time for the rest of his life.”
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