SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — At least two toddlers in Spokane County overdosed on fentanyl and were brought back to life with Narcan in the last year.
Both toddlers got ahold of their caregivers’ fentanyl and ingested the drug.
On March 5, Spokane County deputies responded to a call about a toddler turning blue after getting into some foil used to take fentanyl in his mother’s purse.
The one-year-old’s mother, 35-year-old Samantha Anderson, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, a gross misdemeanor.
She was not eligible to be charged with endangerment with a controlled substance, a class B felony, because the charge does not include fentanyl it its definition.
In February, a two-year-old overdosed in a hotel room after getting ahold of a spoon used to take fentanyl.
His mother, Micala Cameron, told responding deputies she had given her son two doses of Narcan.
She was arrested and charged with a class B felony, because SCSO said there was probable cause to believe there was also methamphetamine in the room.
Spokane County Sheriff, John Nowels, said that by not including fentanyl in the ‘endangerment with a control substance’ charge, the state has failed to properly charge parents who expose their children to fentanyl.
“This could kill a child, and the law isn’t written effectively enough to have a severe consequence for that,” he said. “You have parents who recklessly endanger their child’s life and maybe, if we’re lucky, we might get a gross misdemeanor charge.”
He said the law needs to reflect Washington’s current fentanyl crisis.
If you suspect a child has been exposed to fentanyl, call 9-1-1 and administer Narcan right away.
RELATED COVERAGE: Spokane Valley baby overdoses on fentanyl, mother arrested
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