CONCORD, NH — Fentanyl continues to be mixed into many illicit drugs with devastating results.

Last year, three individuals were found dead in a Littleton home after reportedly ingesting cocaine laced with fentanyl. Cases like this, where individuals experiment with drugs and result in catastrophic consequences, are why there is “No Safe Experience” when it comes to taking illicit drugs because they could contain fentanyl.

With National and New Hampshire Fentanyl Awareness Day on May 7, officials in New Hampshire are calling on all individuals to be aware of the life-threatening dangers associated with fentanyl, a substance that is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin and morphine. The statewide public awareness campaign “No Safe Experience” focuses on educating youth, young adults and families of the prevalence of fentanyl in illicit drugs and counterfeit pills and a very small dose can lead to death due to its high potency.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Safety, there were 430 overdose deaths in the Granite State in 2023. Of these, nearly 85 percent were from substances where fentanyl was present. In the same year, there were 4,080 suspected overdose incidents reported, many of which required Narcan use by first responders. Death tolls may have been significantly higher if these measures were not taken.

“Fentanyl is an unforgiving, deadly, invisible killer that can take the life of anyone who decides to use an illicit substance,” Colonel Mark Hall, the director of the New Hampshire State Police, said. “It is important to create a high level of awareness that there is No Safe Experience when it comes to illicit drugs and fake pills, as our forensic lab commonly finds fentanyl in these types of substances.”

Gov. Chris Sununu issued a proclamation declaring May 7, 2024, Fentanyl Awareness Day in New Hampshire. The proclamation stated that “illicit fentanyl use is widespread and deadly and poses a significant public health risk. The State of New Hampshire joins all those who have been affected by fentanyl misuse in spreading awareness of the harm that fentanyl can cause; resources are available for loved ones dealing with substance misuse; and reminds all Granite Slaters there is No Safe Experience when consuming any drugs that have not been prescribed by a medical provider and taken by the person they were prescribed to as directed by a healthcare professional.”

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid typically used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery. A dose the size of a few grains of salt can be lethal, and it is often found to be mixed with other illicit substances, including cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin. It is now regularly seen in fake pills branded as Oxycodone and Percocet, among others, and is undetectable without testing.

According to an April 2024 report by Statista, there has been a dramatic surge in drug overdose deaths in the U.S. over the past 10 years, which is primarily driven by the rise of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. According to preliminary data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose deaths exceeded 110,000 in 2022, with synthetic opioids involved in 76,000 of those deaths.

The No Safe Experience campaign will run through the fall and is focused on individuals who may be inclined to try substances without fully understanding what they are, where they came from and what might actually be in them. The campaign includes videos, public service announcements, social media resources, billboards, and an informational website. Posters, racks cards and decals were distributed to 217 public middle and high schools and educational toolkits and resources are available to schools across the state.

For more information, facts, and resources, visit NoSafeExperience.org.

Submitted by the New Hampshire Department of Public Safety.

A New Hampshire woman was driving 112 mph, weaving in and out of traffic and had two children unbuckled in the backseat on Friday, according to New Hampshire State Police.

Shirley Stanley, 23, of Manchester, faces multiple charges, including two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The mother of the two children was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV on Route 101 when police saw her driving at a “high rate of speed” around 9:17 p.m. on Friday. Police said at one point she was driving 112 mph.

The two children, ages 1 and 4, were not buckled or in any type of child restraint system, police stated.

Stanley was arrested and charged with reckless operation, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of violating required child passenger restraints, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, unsafe lane change, following too closely and speeding. She was processed and released on personal recognizance bail.

New Hampshire State Police are asking others who saw Stanley’s driving before she was pulled over to contact Trooper Jacob Benjamin at Jacob.A.Benjamin@dos.nh.gov or #NHSP dispatch at (603) 223-4381.

Stanley is scheduled to appear in Candia District Court at 8 a.m. on June 10.

When New Hampshire’s Democratic candidates for governor gathered for a forum at Exeter Town Hall Sunday afternoon, the top topics were affordable housing, abortion rights, climate change, Education Freedom Accounts, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte.

Left unmentioned?

Inflation, illegal immigration, anti-Israel protests roiling Granite State college campuses, and the other GOP candidate for governor, former state Senate President Chuck Morse.

The topics were selected in part by the organizers, students from New Hampshire high schools like Oyster River High, Raymond High, and Phillips Exeter Academy. But the three candidates were able to add their own topics, and it was clear they wanted to talk about Ayotte.

“We have to call Kelly Ayotte out for what she stands for,” former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said. “She is the most dangerous threat to New Hampshire that we have ever seen.”

And, Craig added, “We need to make sure we put forward a candidate who can beat her, and I’m telling you, I can.”

Craig, the current primary frontrunner according to the most recent polling, fielded students’ questions in front of a crowd of around 100 people, along with Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and former New Market town councilor Jon Kiper.

Kiper, the least well-known of the three candidates, was the first to speak. He said his campaign is “all about housing.”

“Every year that we don’t focus on housing as Democrats, we are losing young people and that’s our base,” Kiper said.

Asked by student about laws affecting the transgender community, Kiper said he opposed any restrictions on sex-change medical procedures and called the issue a GOP “smoke screen so we don’t talk about the real issues of property taxes and housing and homelessness and opioid addiction.”

NH Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington speaks at a candidate’s forum in Exeter, N.H. on May 5, 2024

Warmington was the second to speak. She took the opportunity to promote her political bona fides as the lone Democrat serving on the state’s Executive Council. Asked about updates to New Hampshire abortion laws under GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, Warmington said she has gone “toe-to-toe” with him “on the danger of his abortion ban.”

(Sununu signed a law in 2022 allowing abortion for any reason during the first six months of pregnancy, and bans them — with exceptions — after that.)

Warmington also claimed “Republicans have made it perfectly clear that they do not want to run against me.”

“In fact, when the governor was asked about this race on the radio, and asked about the Democratic primary, his answer to the question was ‘Warmington will be formidable,’” she said. “He knows that because I am the only person in New Hampshire who ever goes toe-to-toe with Gov. Sununu.

“He doesn’t go down and talk to the legislature. He only talks to the press when he wants to. But every two weeks, at that council table, there I am asking the tough questions.”

Warmington also said public education “is under assault” by Education Freedom Accounts, a New Hampshire program offering families state funding should they choose to enroll their children in a non-public school.

Warmington was later quizzed about her time in 2002 working as a lobbyist representing Purdue Pharma, producers of the opioid painkiller Oxycontin. She defended her work and said she “argued that doctors should be the ones to make the decision about what patients receive.”

Craig focused much of her remarks on her time serving as the city’s mayor and said her chief concern as

NH Democratic candidate for governor Joyce Craig speaks at a candidate’s forum in Exeter, N.H. on May 5, 2024

 governor, like Warmington and Kiper, would focus on affordable housing.

She told the roughly 100 attendees at Sunday’s town hall that Manchester “today has one of the hottest job markets in the entire country.”

She also expressed her opposition to the state’s EFA program.

“As governor, I will ensure that our public tax dollars go to our public schools and on day one,” Craig said. “I’m not opposed to parents having a choice of where they send their kids to school.

“What I don’t agree with is providing public dollars to go to private or religious schools.”

Craig later pivoted back to her experience as Manchester mayor, and her 2017 win over former Mayor Ted Gatsas.

“I also took on a very popular four-term incumbent Republican when I became mayor of Manchester, so I know what it takes to get through the tough elections,” she said. “I’ve done it, I have a roadmap, and I plan on doing it again.”

While it didn’t appear to make much impact on the audience, Kiper had a proposal that’s likely to get some attention in Concord. He wants to pay the legislature.

“What I propose is 500 bucks a week for just the six months that the legislature is in session,” Kiper said. “This will enable working class folks to run and serve as state representatives if they want to.

“It is really less than $5 million a year.”