Montecito mother warns of fentanyl dangers after death of her son

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Stephanie Forrester became a mom to her son Justin later in life.

"I named him Justin because I had him just in time," said Forrester.

As a boy, Justin was a Flower Empower volunteer, working with Dream Foundation to deliver flowers to cancer patients and others.

He loved the color orange. At Montecito Union School, Justin made a point of playing with the kids rarely picked.

"I remember when he was little he would go out at recess and throw a ball to someone who didn't even know how to play football," Forrester said.

He made people laugh, too. Video of Justin photo-bombing coverage of a Kardashian wedding in Santa Barbara went viral and is still on YouTube.

"He just loved life, and he was beyond funny."

But during COVID-19, Justin used fentanyl to help numb an old ankle injury. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid developed to treat severe cancer pain. It's 50-100 times stronger than heroin and morphine.

"One morning I happened to look in his room and he was unconscious, his lips were purple, and he was clammy. He spent a couple nights in ICU."

Justin survived that overdose.

"I would follow him at night to certain places, I don't think I slept for two years until I heard him come home at night," Forrester remembered.

But kicking fentanyl wasn't easy.

"He didn't want to be an addict, he didn't want to be sick, he tried really, really hard, he was so ashamed of it, he hid it from a lot of people."

Things were looking up when he found a job, and moved in with friends.

Little did his mom know, when they talked about getting him a haircut, new bedding and groceries it would be their last conversation.

On February 22, 2022, Justin overdosed again and this time the 22-year-old didn’t wake up.

"It really hit home, I want to think about maybe doing a nonprofit just called 2-22-22 age 22."

In the days since, Forrester has learned everything she can about fentanyl from people like Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent William "Bill" Bodner and Santa Barbara County Alcohol and Drug Program Division Chief John Doyel.

"Now we are seeing recreational drug users die of drug causes, and we are seeing even first time or experimenters with drugs die of fentanyl overdoses," said Bodner.

Even first-time users can die of respiratory failure.

"The problem with fentanyl is it is so powerful that it is taking people out before we can even work with them," said Doyel. "I have been in this business over 37 years and I have never seen an epidemic like this."

When asked if the Central Coast has a problem over Zoom, Bodner said, "There is absolutely a problem in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties."

Overdoses have more than doubled since a crackdown on doctors over prescribing painkillers.

Doyel said, "It is the new speedball, it used to be heroin and cocaine, now it is fentanyl."

And sales have moved online.

"It is bad because the reality now is we all live in an open air drug market," Bodner said.

From Justin’s social media, including Tinder and Snapchat, Forrester learned slang terms and code names for fentanyl such as TNT, and Goodfella.

Forrester added, "M30, China Girl, um, Blues , gosh I can't remember them all."

"There is a very unique language used on these platforms to sell drugs, some of it an emoji based language and the DEA has made what we call an emoji decoder," Bodner said.

Forrester learned the killer drug can be sold as a powder or fake tablets for less than 20 bucks.

Dealers are buying fentanyl pills wholesale in Los Angeles for $2 dollars and sell them for $20 throughout the state.

The DEA recently seized 50,000 fentanyl pills in Camarillo. Most were counterfeit pills made to look like prescription drugs.

Bodner said, "It is just something that is made to look like a legitimate pill and the only active ingredient is fentanyl."

Fentanyl pills manufactured in Mexico are made with chemicals imported from China.

Dealers convicted of 'Federal Drug Distribution Resulting in Death' can face 20 years in prison for the sale of a single pill.

"It could be as little as one pill. We have many cases of one or two pills, but because it caused a death we went after the dealer," said Bodner. "We are definitely holding the dealers accountable."

More than 100 people died of fentanyl overdoses in Santa Barbara County last year alone.

A counter agent called Narcan could have prevented some of those deaths.

"Narcan, Noloxone is the antidote to reverse an overdose," said Doyel. "We have spread a lot of Noloxone throughout our communities."

Forrester found a website, where anyone can get Narcan at no cost. She thinks everyone should carry it.

Hundreds of people attended Justin's memorial at the Santa Barbara Mission including friends seeking help.

"People I didn't even ask came out of the woodwork," said Forrester while walking in the Mission Rose Garden, "Four afterwards checked into rehab and two of the boys who came here to speak were in rehab."

This Montecito mother knows speaking up won’t bring Justin back, but she believes warning families about fentanyl can make a difference.

"To lose your only child, sometimes it is unbearable, but I know that maybe what I do, and what I am saying will be helpful," said Forrester. "Nobody should have to lose somebody that they love because we don't know enough about something."

Donations to help with Justin's service costs may be made through this GoFundMe page.

For more information about the drug visit www.dea.gov or click here.

For information about Narcan visit dhcs.ca.gov.