Champions for Youth Podcast
The Champions for Youth Podcast brings together trailblazers in youth advocacy, education, and public health at the forefront of creating impactful change as they reveal their motivations to take action and strategies that make a difference in their communities.
Join us for inspirational bi-monthly conversations to empower any youth-facing professional with actionable insights for combatting health behavior challenges youth face in communities everyday.
Champions for Youth Podcast
Equipping Youth to Confront the Fentanyl Crisis with Author Ben Westhoff
What if saving lives started with teaching the truth; early, often, and without shame?
In this episode, we learn how one personal tragedy turned into a mission to expose the real dangers of fentanyl and help young people make informed lifesaving decisions. We learn that education rooted in honesty and empathy, not fear, can help teens make safer choices and become advocates for their own health.
If you care about keeping youth informed and equipped to face real-world challenges, this is a must listen.
Welcome to a new type of conversation. With each episode, we'll meet with inspiring people sharing best practices at the forefront of creating change for our young people. We'll talk motivations that make a difference and how their lived experience can help empower us to take action and make a difference in the lives of young people where we live. My name is CJ Stermer, and this is the Champions for Youth Podcast. Why are young people still dying from opioid and fentanyl overdose when the danger is clearer than ever? In this episode, we talk with Ben Westhoff, investigative journalist and author of Fentanyl Inc. to talk about the real story behind fentanyl and why youth are often the ones paying the highest price in a system that hasn't kept up. From what makes fentanyl uniquely dangerous to how it's showing up in unexpected places, we unpacked why traditional education is falling short and what needs to change if we want to keep young people safe. We also talk about how stigma, misinformation and criminalization have shaped the conversation and what happens when we finally start listening to youth and those closest to the crisis. This episode is a call to rethink how we talk to young people about risk, harm, and the choices they face, and to not only do it with urgency, but with honesty and empathy. Hi, Ben. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, CJ. We're here to talk about what's going on in the community as it relates to OUDs and fentanyl overdoses and your experience with that. And you and I actually had the pleasure of meeting a few years ago at our very first Champions for Youth Summit, where you gave a very interesting and inspiring talk about what you've witnessed in the community and what led to your first project, Fentanyl Inc., that talked a lot about your investigative journalism as it relates to opioid use disorder and the four years of your research into that topic. But first, I want to ask, what led to your passion and interest into this topic and doing this investigative journalism and ultimately led to writing this book?
SPEAKER_01:I had a close friend die from fentanyl back in 2010. That was before I even knew what fentanyl was. And I was working as a music writer and editor. And I was covering the rave scene a few years later. And I kept hearing about all these people who are dying at raves. And that's where I was blamed on ecstasy. But I didn't know, you know, I knew a lot about drugs and knew that ecstasy shouldn't be killing that many people. So I did a deep dive and found out that there was almost no real MDMA, no real ecstasy going around and all of it was being cut with these brand new drugs with these complicated names no one had heard of and they were all coming from China and the most dangerous of all of them was fentanyl and so that sort of sent me on this huge investigation and I ended up going to China, going undercover in some of these labs and going all over the world really to try to understand the fentanyl problem.
SPEAKER_00:Condolences on your friend. I know that must have been a very tumultuous time that you went through, but it led to talking about some powerful things and ultimately writing the book, Fentanyl Inc. Focus more on the supply side. But now you have this new upcoming documentary focusing on the recover aspects called The Antagonist. You can watch previews about the upcoming documentary on your website, benwesthoff.com. I know when I went on there, you have a couple of preview documents, but one that really spoke to me was the six-minute preview where you actually went to San Francisco in the Tenderloin and had very deep conversations with people that were battling addiction and actually going through their recovery efforts. So I was wondering if you kind of tell me a little bit about this documentary and what your experience was.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, focusing on recovery, I think, is the most important thing if we're going to really get through this epidemic. I think medication-assisted treatment is really necessary and And there's the vast majority of people with opioid use disorder are not getting it. And so my documentary focuses on a drug called naltrexone, which is better known as the Vivitrol shot. And that protects people from opioids for 30 days. So basically, it's like a vaccine. You know, it's like a force field. Once you take a shot of it, you could use all the heroin, all the fentanyl you want, and basically it wouldn't affect you at all. But very few people are familiar with this medicine and it's, you know, not widely prescribed at all. So my documentary is kind of like investigating why, you know, it's kind of been stymied by big money interests. So there's kind of an investigatory aspect to this documentary as well.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. So it sounds like it's kind of similar to what Narcan does, right? But instead of being more of a reactive solution, it sounds like it's more of like a prophylactic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. It's almost exactly the same chemical structure as Narcan. And, you know, everyone knows that Narcan has saved millions and millions of lives. But, you know, it's not really a solution to the problem. It's more like, you know, it's more like I wouldn't call it a bandaid, but it's like it's a reaction to the problem we already have. Whereas if we're trying to be more proactive to stop people from overdosing in the first place, a drug like naltrexone can potentially be very valuable.
SPEAKER_00:How are you seeing this this incredible revolutionary drug actually affect some of the people maybe in San Francisco or other places where you've spoken to these people? How are you seeing it actually affecting their lives?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I live in St. Louis and, you know, I just talked to a lot of people who've been on the Vivitrol shot and, you know, really changed their lives. They've been sober and, you know, it's amazing. It's not for everybody. You have to be completely detoxed from opioids to take Vivitrol natural For a lot of people, that's a bridge too far because you have to go through withdrawal and it's very difficult. There's other really great opioid use disorder medications, methadone and buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is also known as Suboxone. And, you know, I get into those medications too in my film and they're all important. But for some people, they don't like using methadone or buprenorphine because they're addicting opioids in themselves. It's much better than being on bad street drugs like, say, heroin. You know, you can get it. It's very reliable. You can have it prescribed and people can stay on methadone or suboxone their whole lives and live like healthy, productive lives. But for people who don't want to, you know, be addicted to a different opioid, you know, naltrexone might be a better solution. And the other thing is accessing methadone is difficult. You have to basically live near a methadone clinic to be able to do it reliably. And in San Francisco, you know, I went all around the Tenderloin, interviewed people who are addicted to opioids, went to a methadone clinic, and this guy said it changed his life. But it's difficult because he can't move. He has to go there
SPEAKER_00:basically every day. Do you find that naltrexone is also something that is a little difficult to get and to be located near it?
SPEAKER_01:Naltrexone is great because it's not a controlled substance. And so any doctor can prescribe it. You can get it at any pharmacy anytime you want. It's available as a genetic Eric. So it's much more easy to access.
SPEAKER_00:Why do you think more information or more people are hearing about this drug? Why isn't it becoming more talked about?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think, you know, some people might have opioid fatigue, right? You know, we've been hearing about the heroin problem and the pills problem and now the fentanyl problem. And, you know, most addicted users are on the margins of society. There's plenty of kids who have problems with opioids and other drugs like that. But for for people living on the margins of society, it's really easy to ignore them. You know, it's very tied up in the unhoused homelessness crisis. And we see these giant tent cities in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and, you know, people bang their fist. But these are complicated problems, and they have to do with rising cost of living, you know, and substance abuse. And it's hard to untangle these things. But the fact is that these opioid use disorder medications are usually free, including naltrexone, buprenorphine, and often methadone. You can get it for a very cheap price. And the main problem is just sort of communicating to people in need that these medications are available and doing outreach.
SPEAKER_00:Ben, we've seen some reports, or at least there's been some chatter about decrease in ODs or maybe even usage of these drugs. Are you seeing similar instances of these overdoses actually coming down?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. The good news is that we reached the peak a couple of years ago and overdose deaths have been declining almost across the board in just about every And so this is great news. I think it shows that Narcan has really saved so many lives. People have been educated. Fentanyl can be in any pill or any powder. That's the first time I've ever said that. I still think we have a long way to go in terms of education, but more people than ever are now aware that taking drugs today is not the same as it was 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. You can't just pop a pill at a party and cross your fingers. your fingers that it'll be safe because it can and very often does have fentanyl. So the only area that is still kind of troubling is that there is still a segment of the youth population that the overdose deaths are increasing. In fact, I was just reading a story on NPR about that today. We've accomplished a lot, but
SPEAKER_00:there's still a lot of work to do. Wow. So it's still very much affecting the youth population widely across the country. Why do you think that is? I
SPEAKER_01:think it's It's just the sort of versatility of fentanyl. So fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, 100 times more powerful than morphine. And it's not just that it's strong. It's just that it can be mixed into anything. It's a white powder. It looks just like cocaine. If you put it in a pill form and stamp it to look like a Percocet or a Xanax, it's very difficult to tell the difference. And I think for kids, especially when they see see a pharmaceutical pill, a pharmaceutical style pill, they think, well, this is the kind of thing that's in my parents' medicine cabinet, you know, it's medicine. And so it can't really be something that would hurt me, right? When I think about my own behavior, back when I was in high school and college, I remember at a party one time, this guy I like didn't even know really hardly at all handed me a pill. And I just threw it back and took it. I was ready to party. I survived that. But nowadays, someone could do that same thing and it would be a pill that killed them. The DEA believes that they were saying that four out of 10 black market pills have fentanyl. And then more recently, they raised that number to six out of 10 pills. And I think this is the part of the market that is most affecting kids. Most kids aren't going out and buying heroin on the street or crystal meth, you know, and probably aren't using needles. But a lot of them, if they see a pharmaceutical style pill, they might take that.
SPEAKER_00:I know we talked about these revolutionary drugs that can help be proactive and reactive in terms of the adult population or homeless populations or more of the marginalized communities. Do you think this is something that would be easily available to young people or be effective even though their behavior seems to be a bit different?
SPEAKER_01:The medication-assisted treatment, that's for people who are addicted to opioids. When it comes to a lot of kids, a lot of these are people who are dabbling. They might be first-time users a lot of them probably don't even know what an opioid is. An opioid could be like a Percocet or an Oxycontin or heroin or fentanyl. It's basically anything that impacts the opioid receptors in the body. And so there's another class of drugs called benzodiazepines, and these are like Xanax, Valium. These are often prescribed too, and they're used to help ease anxiety, sleeplessness, and they don't really kill anyone. They you know, they're relatively safe. They can be addictive, but they only kill people when they're combined with other downers. So benzos are downers, opioids are downers, alcohol is a downer. And in combination, these things can basically stop you from breathing, kind of tricks your body into slowing down your heart rate to such an extent that you die. And with kids, this is really a big problem. And it's not something that addiction medications can really tackle. And so when it comes to trying to prevent youth overdoses, I really still think that education is the main approach that we should be doubling down on. And I think right now, you know, there's kind of a hodgepodge of different education programs that kids might receive. I think there's surveys done that less than half of kids in some areas report receiving any drug or alcohol information in school at all. And I do think that we need a sort of national program to help with prevention among youth. And I think it should be national because we need to sort of align our messaging to the facts. And there's a lot of misinformation that's floating around out there. And unfortunately, I even see educational programs that have this misinformation. And so I think we need a sort of national program that It starts very young to teach kids about the dangers of fentanyl and the dangers of all these new drugs that are out there. I think you need to use scaremongering because the truth is really scary enough as it is. I think that if kids realize that fentanyl really can kill you. This is not something that your parents are saying to scare you. It's a fact. I think they're smarter than we sometimes assume they will be. And they would take this messaging to heart.
SPEAKER_00:A very alarming statistic that you were speaking of, the six and 10. That's a lot. And it sounds like the more proactive solution where we're talking about young people is more of education, not administering proactive drugs, and more of educating on what could happen and harmful effects and more of the reactive nature of how to prevent the death. In your experience, have you seen examples where the education of this and these conversations have actually yielded positive outcomes in saving someone's life?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think nationally you're seeing that kids are using drugs less than in previous generations. There's been kind of a steep decline. And so that's actually coincided with the fentanyl epidemic. I think that's a direct result of educating kids and them starting to realize that, hey, this is not my daddy's, this is not your father's recreational drug landscape. And so that's comforting that kids are using drugs less. But there's other stuff that's sort of creeping in, like vaping is becoming more common. And, you know, on one hand, vaping, if you know what it is you're vaping, you know, it still has nicotine, which is addictive. We have lots of instances where the vape juice is this toxic, So there are new challenges on the horizon for kids, things they think might be safe that probably aren't. The good news is there's less substance use by kids. The bad news is the landscape is more dangerous than ever. Ben, we talk a lot about empowerment
SPEAKER_00:to our audience and what it means to actually be able to make a difference and take action within their own communities. How do we empower people to help spread the education about what's happening and how we can prevent it? Where do we go to have these conversations?
SPEAKER_01:You know, you really can't start too young with kids on these issues. I have a son who's just 10 and he's already starting to talk with his friends about some of these issues. I hear they're sort of second-handed, you know, misinformation they're talking about with each other. But, you know, I think even late in elementary school, especially middle school, junior high, you already need to be talking about
SPEAKER_00:these issues. Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't realize that kids were talking about this so young. So I totally agree. We need to get ahead of that as much as possible, not just think about, you know, people that are 16, 17, 18. It gets younger than that.
SPEAKER_01:The main thing that I'm doing right now is going around the country and giving talks at conferences and seminars, at schools, to youth, to adults, to people who work in drug treatment, to people who work in policy, to law enforcement. And my presentation talks about how we got into this crisis, how we can get out of it. You know, I love talking to audiences about what we can do about this problem. So
SPEAKER_00:an effective way to create behavior change is actually diving in, not the scare tactics, like you said, but diving in to the education and really showing people this is how it happens. This is where it comes from. You need to know this stuff. So everyone ask around, figure out who may be able to support those causes. Think on the state level, talk to your legislators, you know, see what is possible. So that's that's really empowering and good to know. So let's get Ben's subject matter expertise into these schools and into these areas to help educate others. So that's great. And thank you for doing that work. Ben, I really appreciate your time today. It was really informative and really inspiring for what you have done and what's upcoming to empower us all to think differently and to create some action and actually save lives.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, thanks, CJ.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you to the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth and Prevention Connections for their continued support. And if you haven't already saved the date, May 4th through 6th, 2026 is the Champions for Youth Summit in Reston, Virginia. We gather hundreds of leaders from around the country to learn what you all are doing to improve and champion for the lives of our young people. To learn Thanks for listening, everybody. Go out there. Go do good. We'll see you next time.
