In 2020, Charlie Ternan was a 22-year-old getting ready to graduate from Santa Clara University (SCU). But three weeks before his graduation, he tragically died after taking a pill that he thought was Percocet. It turned out to be fentanyl. On Oct. 16, nearly five years after Charlie’s death, his parents, Ed and Mary, returned to the SCU as heads of the nonprofit Song for Charlie. Ed took the stage to share Charlie’s story and warn other young people how one mistake could turn into tragedy.
“Today, the drug landscape is now like a minefield, where your first or second step out there might be your last,” said Ed, who is an SCU graduate himself.
For the last five years, he and Mary have spent time educating themselves on this new drug landscape, understanding exactly what their youngest son, Charlie, faced.
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“So shortly after that [Charlie’s death], Mary and I said, Let’s go warn the kids,” Ed told the audience. “Who’s telling the kids about this new potent synthetic opioid that’s in pills and powders in the drug supply. The answer at that time, really was, no one is, so we decided to take that on.”
They formed the nonprofit Song for Charlie to spread the word that synthetic drugs are now being shaped to look like prescription drugs. To save money, drug dealers are using fentanyl in deadly doses. That’s what happened to Charlie in 2020 when he thought he was buying Percocet, a drug he was familiar with and had taken previously after having back surgery. What he actually bought was fentanyl.
The goal of Song for Charlie is to spread the word that you can’t tell the difference until it’s too late.
“This coalition that we’ve been able to put together in the five years since we started Song for Charlie, all around this idea of ‘Just Say Know,’ spelled K-N-O-W,” said Ed. “Where the idea is, instead of moralizing, to empower young people and their families and everyone who loves them and cares about them to make healthy decisions and understand the risks of this new chemical drug landscape that you all face, that we didn’t face back in our day.”
Since its founding, Song for Charlie has worked with groups like the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Department, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. Now, it’s partnered with Meta to spread the message in faith communities, kicking things off at SCU.
Working with the Clinton Global Initiative, Song for Charlie is offering 50 Oak boxes filled with Narcan and Naloxone for distribution on the SCU campus and in the surrounding community. The idea is that the boxes will be available in an emergency in high-traffic areas, much like defibrillators and fire extinguishers.
For Ed, the goal is to get students educated and talking.
“At the college level, the reduction in drug mortality is the steepest of all, and we really think the reason for that is because you all are talking to each other,” said Ed. “The messaging going on on campuses is peer-to-peer. It’s not just from a position of authority down. You all have taken it upon yourselves to do tablings, to start local chapters and start telling one another, ‘Hey, have you heard what’s going on? We got to be careful.’ And it’s working.”
For more details, visit the Song for Charlie website at https://www.songforcharlie.org/.
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