Major Manning of Mountain House, California, was just 17 when he took a single Percocet pain pill—but he didn’t know it was laced with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The drug ultimately took his life in 2023, and what happened to him is becoming increasingly commonplace in California.

In July, a 22-year-old Los Angeles woman, Jestice James, was charged with two counts of murder related to the deaths of her twin 3-year-old sons who died from alleged exposure to fentanyl in the home, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The same month, parents Austin and Carla Veltri of Apple Valley, California, were arrested after allegedly exposing their infant daughter to fentanyl, which resulted in her hospitalization.

Nationwide, fentanyl is the most lethal drug in the history of the United States. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the synthetic opioid killed almost 38,000 Americans in the first six months of 2023. In 2022, nearly 22 high school-aged students died every week in the United States from drug overdoses, largely stemming from counterfeit drugs laced with fentanyl, per UCLA Health.

“It’s an epidemic,” said Rhonda Manning, mother of fentanyl victim Major Manning.

Following the death of her son, Manning started a nonprofit, A Major Movement, focused on educating parents and students about the dangers of fentanyl-laced drugs. Her son’s story is also featured in the documentary “Fentanyl High,” created by a senior at Los Gatos High School, which discusses the impact the drug is having on American high schoolers and the risks of taking pills from friends.

Manning emphasized the dangers posed by taking pain pills purchased from sources unknown.

“These days, you can’t take anything because everything is deadly, and you don’t know what you’re taking,” she told The Epoch Times.

Counterfeit drugs are the most dangerous aspect of the fentanyl crisis affecting youth. Kids might buy what they believe is a regular drug when it is actually laced with or made from fentanyl.

The drug is at least 50 times stronger than heroin and more addictive, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Many have questioned why it has become so pervasive in the United States.

“The problem that we’re having is that the precursor chemicals are being created in China, sponsored in China ... and then it is smuggled from China into Latin America,” said Cindy De Silva, a narcotics prosecutor and deputy district attorney in San Joaquin County.

She said the chemical precursors—which are required to create the synthetic drug—are sold to Mexican drug cartels, who mix them with other forms of powder and substances to make counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. Many of these pills look like pharmaceutical-grade tablets, but many of them contain fatal doses of fentanyl, she said.

Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a likely fatal dose—a dose small enough to sit on the tip of a pencil.

“China is doing this on purpose,” De Silva said, pointing to the severely addictive nature of fentanyl, which can get users hooked immediately. “They’re purposely creating a drug that will create addicts ... ensuring a customer base for life.”

And the fentanyl crisis will likely worsen as long as cartels have easy access to American drug markets through the largely unsecured southern border, she said. Most fentanyl is smuggled through ports of entry, according to the National Immigration Forum. 

“It’s not part of the problem; it is the problem,” De Silva said.

And American children are caught in the crossfire. Kids are unknowingly buying fentanyl-laced drugs via social media, and adults who keep drugs in the house also risk exposing small children or infants to fentanyl if pills are dropped on the floor or left within reach.

While De Silva noted that cursory accidental contamination with fentanyl can’t kill a person, breathing it or ingesting it can. A curious kid might pop a pill at a friend’s house and end up dead.

“I hate it when people call it an overdose,” said Jennifer Burruel, the mother of an aspiring pastor, Christopher, who lost his life nearly two years ago because of accidental fentanyl poisoning at age 29.

She said authorities found a mix of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax and fentanyl in her son’s system during an autopsy following his death.

“I know that the kind of work he did was a lot of pressure, so I think he probably got a pill from somebody he thought he could trust,” she told The Epoch Times.

Burruel now also spends her time educating youth on the dangers of fentanyl in schools in the Stockton, California, area and putting up billboards with pictures of victims killed by the drug to raise awareness. She even holds community rallies and distributes Narcan—an emergency opioid reversal drug—for free.

“People are learning that this is not just a drug addict [who’s affected]. ... It’s affecting more than just a drug user; it’s affecting the families; it’s affecting small children,” she said.