Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says there has been a “troubling” increase in drug-related deaths among Kansas children.
The latest report from the State Child Death Review Board uses stats from 2022. It shows 16 child deaths involving drugs from ages 0-17, up from 11 the prior year. Kobach says the increase points to an increase in fentanyl traffic, a trend seen nationally with over 100,000 drug overdose deaths for all age groups as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2022.
Referring back to the state report and dating back to 2018, Kansas had no drug-related deaths ages four and younger. There have been 10 in that age range since, including six where the child or children found “unsecured” illegal drugs. Kobach says nearly 70 percent of the drug-related deaths were actually for children ages 15-17 — and a lot were experimenting with drugs, unaware fentanyl was involved.
