An editorial By Bruce Karnick

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‘Not us, it could never happen to us.’ That is what parents all over the globe think when it comes to drug use by their kids, especially deadly drug use. It could never happen to my kid, they are smarter than that. Maybe you are correct. Maybe your kid would never knowingly buy a drug laced with fentanyl. But they may buy a prescription drug through a variety of social media or chat apps thinking they are just getting a Percocet or Oxycodone. They may buy a prescription drug through social media or chat apps thinking it will take the edge off the pain they are in from an abscessed tooth until they get to the dentist, only to die because it was laced with enough fentanyl to kill several adult men.

Your kid may end up dead because they do not know any better and we are not teaching them. It’s happening over and over in Hastings. Kids getting poisoned by drug dealers selling pills that are laced with fentanyl and we need to wake up to reality. Devin Norring, Natalia Arreguin and Tyler Kavitz, all young adults from Hastings, all poisoned and killed by fentanyl. All because they thought they were taking a prescription pain medication. They were lied to and are dead now because of it. No, I am not pulling See TOWN HALL Page 3 punches here and neither are our state and federal representatives, nor should they be, and neither should you. Have the conversations with your kid. Kids are going to do stupid things, I know I did as a kid, but the stupid things we did were far less likely to kill us. Now, they get one wrong, tiny little pill, and poof, gone forever. Then you, your family, friends, the community, we are all left to collectively deal with the pain forever and that is not OK. Talk to them, plead with them, pull out the thought process of, “I don’t make much not negotiable, but this is one of those not negotiable things, kid.” Put your foot down, explain how deadly this can be and ask them to be smart and simply stay away from pills they do not get from a doctor or trusted adult.

On Saturday, these are the kinds of things discussed at the town hall meeting outside of City Hall on Saturday. MN Senator Karla Bigham and US Representative Angie Craig lead the gathering to further the discussion around drugs in Hastings, the state and the country. They were joined by Mayor Mary Fasbender, members of the Hastings Police Department, Dakota County Sheriff’s Office and other city and school officials. Craig and Bigham spoke on how legislators are working on our behalf to make it harder for fentanyl to get here. That on the federal level, they are working to make sure the border patrol has the tools they need to detect and confiscate the drugs before making it to the streets. In Minnesota, Senator Bigham is working to co-author a bill that makes fentanyl the same crime level as heroin. Both discussed that our courts need to do a better job of keeping these kinds of people off the streets.

There are also changes being proposed at the national level to eliminate the protections that social media companies currently have. Section 230 protects internet companies, including social media and chat apps from being liable for the content on their sites or apps. That means apps like Snap Chat can be used for nefarious purposes and the company itself is exempt from any punishment. That also means that there is no true pressure on them to fix things, no pressure to protect users, and no pressure to make tracing user activities by law enforcement. I understand the last piece is a slippery slope. Privacy laws should protect users from an intrusive government, from predatory business practices and more. Privacy laws should not protect alleged criminals from legal investigations where a search warrant is properly obtained and executed.

The problem with many of these apps like Snap Chat is, they are “send and forget”. Meaning, once the message is sent and read, the system forgets it. Through encryption and other means, the message is gone and very difficult to recover. That is what makes them so attractive to dealers, they are difficult to trace and even more difficult to link to the messages. Adding to the attractiveness for dealers is the huge popularity of the apps among teams.

Changes that are being discussed would include holding companies accountable for aiding in illegal activities with the intention of forcing them to put a stop to them to the best of their abilities. It also includes making the messages able to be revisited in the situation where law enforcement has the legal authorization to do so.

Both Bigham and Craig could not emphasize enough the importance of seeing these and other changes through to help get fentanyl off the streets. But the change starts at home, and continues at the local, county, state and ultimately federal level. We not only need the right laws on the books, but we need courts to uphold them.

If you or someone you know is in need of support, please reach out for help by dialing 211. If you or someone you know has knowledge of dealers in the Hastings area, please reach out to the Hastings Police Department 651-480-2300 or Dakota County Drug Task Force 651-994-6220.