These dealers are delivering these drugs right to your house, right to the park, right to the school.”

Special Agent Mattai

As of 2022, Aug. 21 marks National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day. It is a day remembering those who have been lost to the drug and helping to make sure that people are aware of the dangers Fentanyl poses. Hastings of all places knows the effects of Fentanyl, whose use skyrocketed during the pandemic and has only recently begun to level off.
On Aug. 27, the Devin J. Norring Foundation hosted a Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day event at the Confluence. At the event were several guest speakers including Bridgette Norring, mother of Devin J. Norring and founder of the Devin J. Norring Foundation; Mayor Mary Fasbender, Hastings Police Chief Dave Wilske, Rep. Angie Craig, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the Drug Enforcement Administration Rafael Mattei, Co-founder and Executive Director of Rise Up Recovery Tiffany Neuharth, and Recovery Support Specialist Noah Latzer.
At the event were resources about identifying drugs and drug deals including real amounts of drugs ranging from crack cocaine to black tar heroin to ecstasy. These drugs are often shown at schools and public events because many simply don’t know what they look like and therefore can’t identify them. Resources for identifying drug deals were also at the event including a list of emojis often used by drug dealers that correspond to drugs provided by the DEA. During the program, Special Agent Mattai spoke to how drug deals have transformed in recent years from transactions on streetcorners to fully online interactions. The example given by Special Agent Mattai was of posting a picture on social media that is geotagged telling others where the poster currently is. Nearby drug dealers can then comment on that picture using emojis representing the drugs they are trying to sell. After agreeing to amounts and prices in private messages, money can be sent via online platforms like Cashapp or Venmo and the drugs are then delivered via food delivery apps like Uber Eats or Grubhub.
“These dealers are delivering these drugs right to your house, right to the park, right to the school,” said Mattai.
Other resources at the event were schedules for meetings from Rise Up Recovery ranging from Bible study groups to co-dependents anonymous meetings to art classes. Rise Up Recovery in particular was handing out test strips and Naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan. Neuharth gave a presentation on identifying opioid overdoses and administering Naloxone to someone who is overdosing.
Since 2023 when the state legislature mandated the carrying of Naloxone in Minnesota, proliferation of the drug into public hands as been a key goal.
“It’s kind of like having a fire extinguisher: you never want to have to use it, but in case you need it, you want to have access to and be able to use it,” said Neuharth.
Public access to the drug has become widely available and Naloxone can be obtained for free at various county locations including Pleasant Hill Public Library.
Highlighted in her presentation were the three major signs of an overdose: unconsciousness, slow, shallow breathing, and pinpoint pupils, as well as the fact that administering naloxone to someone experiencing an overdose is extremely safe
“We say when in doubt, give naloxone anyway. It’s not going to cause any harm,” said Neuharth.
Pamphlets on laws that protect the reporting of an overdose including Minnesota’s Good Samaritan Law as well as Steve’s Law were also available at the event. Minnesota’s Good Samaritan Law protects those who attempt to help others in various situations including “obtaining aid from law enforcement or medical personnel,” according to the law. Steve’s Law, adopted in 2014, provides limited immunity from certain drug charges to those who report a drug overdose and administer life-saving medication like Naloxone.
The oft-cited statistic at the event was that overdoses and drug poisonings are now the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18-45. That distinction between overdose and drug poisoning may seem clerical, but it is worth unpacking. In recent years, a national conversation on the nomenclature of the opioid epidemic had questioned the term overdose. If someone is taking a drug and is killed because it wasn’t what they thought it was or the drug was laced with other more dangerous drugs like Fentanyl, was that person killed via overdose or were they poisoned?
During the presentation on Naloxone administration, Neuharth mentioned how part of the reason Naloxone is administered so widely, even for drugs that it shouldn’t affect, is because those drugs are so often laced with opioids.
The term drug poisoning doesn’t carry the baggage or stigma of the term overdose and can often be seen as more humanizing. It has begun to appear in bills across the county replacing the term overdose in some cases.

Dakota County statistics
In 2021, Dakota County had 65 overdose deaths. If current rates continue, the county is projected to have only 24 overdose deaths this year, a more than 50% drop since 2021. While the number of overdose fatalities has dropped from pandemic highs, Chief Wilske is quick to point out that the drop is not indicative of a drop in overall drug use, but may point to the expanded access to life-saving drugs like Naloxone.
In addition, despite overdose fatalities dropping, law enforcement officials have seized record amounts of pills, with 2024 totals expected to break the previous record of 300,000 pills seized which was recorded in 2023, indicating that more illegal pills than ever are coming through the community.

The Devin J. Norring Foundation
The Devin J. Norring Foundation was created after Devin J. Norring, a senior at Hastings High School died of Fentanyl poisoning in April 2020. Devin suffered black out migraines and dental pain but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, healthcare to address these issues was not available. Devin ordered what he thought to be a Percocet pill on Snapchat from a local drug dealer. The pill contained fentanyl and killed him. Devin was 19 years old.
At the event, families of loved ones who died from drug overdoses were encouraged to bring framed photos of their loved ones and submit those photos to a slideshow that played behind speakers. Devin was far from the youngest to die of a drug overdose.
Because of the increased prevalence of opioids in the community, a key goal of the Devin J. Norring Foundation has been to get programming into schools to address the dangers posed by Fentanyl and the availability of drugs on social media.
Snapchat, the platform on which Devin bought the pill that killed him, is currently being sued for by a group of 60 families of loved ones killed by overdoses, claiming that the platform is the premier way for teens to buy drugs online.
Sen. Klobuchar compared fatalities from drug deals on the platform to the grounding of Boeing 737 aircrafts in January following a window blowing off one of the planes causing it to depressurize and have an emergency landing.
“That same type of decisive action,” of unilateral movement from a single emergency is necessary for social media platforms, said Klobuchar.
For Rep. Craig, the picture was focused closer to home: “It’s easy to think ‘if only we did this or that’ to solve issues […] but the only way we are going to make a dent in any of these issues is a community approach.”
Previous programing about drug use and prevention like Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE, widely ended in schools across the country, more than a decade ago leaving many students, like Devin, without any education regarding drug abuse and prevention.
For Tom Norring, Devin’s father and founder of the Devin J. Norring Foundation, the path forward is clear: programming needs to be in schools. “When you teach them the truth, you give them the tools and the knowledge and the power to make better decisions. If they are triggered by the truth and the facts, that’s probably a good thing because we need to be aware that this is a deadly crisis. These pills can kill you.”
For more information about the Devin J. Norring Foundation, visit https://www.dnfhelp.org/home