Unmasking the Silent Killer: Fentanyl on College Campuses

A picture of UNC-Chapel Hill student Grace Burton, a Kenan-Flager business school admit and a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. Source for image: WCNC Charlotte

TW: The story contains content on fentanyl poisoning, drug abuse, and overdoses. If you or a loved one is struggling with drug abuse, call 1-800-662-4357 or visit www.samhsa.gov. Help is available.

A student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was found unconscious outside of a Duke University dorm in March 2023. She had overdosed on fentanyl. Just two days later, she was pronounced dead in the hospital. Yet, neither university made a statement about it at the time. Even more interestingly, she was not the only UNC student to die from fentanyl poisoning in that same week.

Grace Burton was an assured-admission Kenan-Flager business school student at the University of North Carolina and a sorority organization Zeta Tau Alpha member. According to a state autopsy, Burton’s death was related to cardiac arrest from cocaine and alcohol. However, a private autopsy report noted that she also had fentanyl and GHB in her system. Burton was 19 years old when she passed. 

According to court documents, Burton was seen meeting with Patrick Rowland, a former Duke student, at a Duke residence hall after a party in the early morning hours. She then contacted Cye Frasier, a 44-year-old man, to buy cocaine, which can be seen from camera footage from outside the residence hall. At roughly six in the morning, Rowland called Frazier with concern that Burton was very “unsteady.” Burton was then carried back into the residence hall and up the stairs to a student dorm where she was found by paramedics just half an hour later. Neither Rowland nor Frasier has been charged for the death of Burton, but both are facing drug distribution charges.

Duke University has recently come out and said that they declined to report anything about Burton because she was a UNC student. UNC’s rebuttal was that they wanted to respect the family's wishes and keep this information private. UNC Media Relations also noted that sending emails about student deaths can be more triggering and cause more harm than good.

In the last two years, UNC has lost three students and one alumnus from fentanyl poisoning. Dean Blackburn, UNC’s Director of Student Wellness, said "I use that term specifically [poisoning]; not ‘overdose’ because our students and alum were not using fentanyl. They were using other substances that were laced with fentanyl, and they did not know that. And the result of that poisoning was their death and our loss.”

In 2021, fentanyl overdoses officially became the leading cause of death for individuals ages 18 to 45. The majority of these deaths were accidental and caused by doing other illicit drugs that unknowingly contained fentanyl, much like what happened to Burton. 

Back in February, North Carolina reported a 22% increase in overdose deaths in 2021. More than 77% of these overdoses involved fentanyl. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has been working tirelessly to implement its opioid crisis plan for the state. It has distributed over 719,000 units of naloxone, a substance that can be used to reverse the effects of an overdose, across the state. Additionally, it is trying to change the regulations so that mobile medical units can use other FDA-approved drugs to treat opioid abuse disorders. But why are communities only becoming more plagued with overdoses?

When preventable deaths happen in your community, it can be frustrating. However, even the sternest policies can’t keep up with the deadliness of fentanyl, especially on college campuses. It is unsurprising to know that opioid use for college-aged students is a serious public health issue given the culture in these communities. These students are more exposed to drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, which leads to opioid exploration. Factors such as stress and heavy course loads are among a few reasons this can occur. Furthermore, most college students aren’t completely sure where the substances they’re taking are coming from. Therefore, even if it is a one-off instance, it can be deadly. Because of these points, most states are unsure how to stop the chaos. Awareness and harm reduction are both important tools to prevent instances of fentanyl poisoning from happening. 

Nabarun Dasgupta, a research scientist at UNC Gillings School of Public Health, has continued to research drug overdoses throughout his career and advocates for naloxone. He has been handing out naloxone to students for free throughout the entire duration of the opioid crisis. Dasgupta commented on the recent student deaths by saying, “As a parent myself, it is something that feels alarming. We tend to lump addiction and overdose together as all part of the same, but it's really not. There's also a lot of folks who are going to be using occasionally, one-off at parties, something that someone gave them kind of thing.” Dasgupta warns that fentanyl is extremely lethal and powerful and can be laced in any type of drug from cocaine to counterfeit prescription pills. With naloxone, the effects can be reversed in minutes. 

While Dasgupta was ridiculed for passing out naloxone to students, he never gave up. The UNC pharmacy has now been carrying naloxone spray students can get for free for seven years. It is reported that the pharmacy gave out 150 kits for the spray last year. However, some students said they weren’t able to get the spray when it was requested. 

Even with naloxone available, there is still progress needed from the whole community. Grace Burton’s death was a public matter, but several other UNC students have died from fentanyl-related deaths unknowingly. The Carolina Harm Reduction Union, a group established by students who have been affected by drug abuse, advocates for awareness of these student deaths. In the future, the union hopes that all college students will have naloxone and know how to properly administer it. They also would like to have a naloxone vending machine placed on campus. With help and support from on-campus groups, our community can be more aware of the dangers of drug use in today’s world. Being more educated on this topic is the first step to prevention. 

Most college-aged students today are aware of the opioid crisis and are affected or know someone who has been affected by it. With fentanyl, this can range from full-blown drug addiction to a one-time drug use gone wrong. Grace Burton and the other members of the Carolina community that we have lost are examples of just how bad this crisis can be. With proper awareness about these deaths in the community and proper education on naloxone and other harm-reduction tools, we can begin to chip away at this problem and save more lives. 

“Addiction is an illness, and it affects everybody,” said UNC student Callan Baruch who helped form the Carolina Harm Reduction Union. While this crisis looms over our country, lives are taken every second. These lives are friends, family, and colleagues. These lives are other UNC students. These lives are Grace Burton, who had just been elected “Director of Sisterhood” for Zeta Tau Alpha. She was driven in academics and her love and kindness towards others. Like Grace, other victims, too, had dreams and aspirations. And now, because of a lack of awareness and policy, they will never get the ending of their story. The crisis surrounding fentanyl poisoning is national, but the impact will always be personal.