‘The News’ and KRLD will host free community discussion about fentanyl in North Texas

The Dallas Morning News and NewsRadio 1080 KRLD will host a free community discussion about the fentanyl crisis in North Texas, with tips on how you can protect yourself and your family.

“Deadly Fake: A Discussion About Fentanyl in North Texas” will be Dec. 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the KRLD office, 4131 N. Central Expressway in Dallas.

The event is free, but reservations are required by emailing rsvp@dallasnews.com.

The evening is formatted as a series of short panel discussions inspired by The News’ recent series on the local fentanyl crisis called “Deadly Fake.” Featured guests will include Dallas’ Peter and Lael Brodsky, whose son, Jacob, died of fentanyl poisoning; Dallas City Council member Paula Blackmon, who co-created the city of Dallas’ Opioid Response Strike Force; and News executive editor Katrice Hardy, along with the core reporting team for the project: Sharon Grigsby, Claire Ballor and Maggie Prosser. The event will be moderated by TV personality and anchor Ron Corning and filmed for streaming broadcast at a later date, to increase awareness of the crisis.

This fall, The News wrapped up its 30-day series on the impact of fentanyl in North Texas, taking readers into homes broken by grief, into courtrooms where justice was a hollow consolation, and into hospitals where fentanyl is a savior and a scourge.

The newsroom committed to writing at least one story a day for the entire month of September on the fentanyl epidemic, in an effort to warn families about the drug that kills an average of five Texans daily and tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is safely used for pain management in medical settings, but illegal drug makers now produce the highly addictive drug and sell it on the streets disguised as more expensive substances such as cocaine, Xanax, oxycodone, and methamphetamine.

Nearly 30 journalists worked on the project, publishing nearly 50 stories that dived into the stigma, the science, the misinformation, the difficulty in mapping and tracking deaths, and the determination of North Texans desperately trying to save lives and help people battling addiction.

Although the series is over, The News plans to continue to write about fentanyl’s impact to press for solutions.