Laura Didier
"In the age of fentanyl and counterfeit pills, tragedy can strike without warning in any family. It happened to mine, and I will never be the same without my precious son Zach.”
Who is Laura Didier?
I had the chance to interview a woman from northern California, who turned a horrible loss into an amazing change, her name is Laura Didier. Her and her son’s story sheds light on the dangers of counterfeit pills.
Zach’s Story: Living in Placer County, her pride and joy was her son named Zach. Zach was a happy and un-troubled kid full of life and smiling. Though he put effort into school, learning came naturally to him. He loved anything sports-related whether that be running on the track team or playing soccer. He had a special love for soccer and had grown up with his teammates who became his best friends. Before his tragedy, Zach had finished his applications for the University of California schools and was being actively scouted. Zach loved theatre and was always the kid that was pumping everybody up before they went on stage so they wouldn't have stage fright. He was close with his parents and siblings and his parents were present at all his games and events and overall had an open communicative relationship.
But it was 2020. With COVID and lockdowns, Zach was having a very different kind of senior year. He had a girlfriend for a year and they had a really sweet, healthy, loving relationship. Even though lockdown, he seemed to be doing as well as anyone could have hoped. Zach found himself a lot more on electronics than he was used to doing, spending more time on social media and gaming. One day, someone was selling pills that looked like real medicines and he thought he was getting a Percocet pill, a pain medication. It was pressed and stamped to look exactly like that. It was a very new thing for Zach. He was not struggling with substance issues, he was not a big partier, and his parents had tabs on him at home. That day Laura and her ex-husband weren’t noticing anything different, he was acting totally normal. “It was an out-of-character choice” Laura even described it. Both ending up perfectly fine made Zach decide to try one more.
Two days after Christmas, Zach and a friend of his went to a local mall went to meet someone they had connected on Snapchat with. This person was a dealer who had sold Zach the counterfeit pill that had cost him his life. Around lunch on the 27th, Zach hadn't come down all morning. Zach's father went to go check on him assuming he had slept in, when walking into Zach's room he found Zach at his desk with his head down like he had laid his head down to go to sleep. Zach was unresponsive and had felt cold by that point. His father put him on the ground to do CPR. His color was fading and it was clear Zach had passed away.
By the time 911 got there, they were searching his room to see if they could find any, any clue, you know, why he would be gone because there were no drugs in his room or injury to his body. Deciding to do an autopsy there were two possibilities, maybe he had a heart condition or some kind of undiagnosed medical condition or it could be fentanyl. That was the first time Laura had heard of fentanyl.
She had all the conversations regarding tobacco and alcohol and marijuana and anything I thought that my kids might encounter but didn't know to have this conversation about fake pills.
Zach died from a counterfeit pill that was laced with fentanyl at the age of 17 on December 27th.
What Laura wants people to take away from Zach’s story: Laura had a great point that really stuck with me. When I asked her “What do you think people need to be aware of?” She talked about how fentanyl has infiltrated all types of drugs. They are adding it to cocaine, heroin, and other “street drugs” but a lot of teens don't really gravitate to them. A lot of teens to feel comfortable with taking pills were being pretty normalized way more than in my generation than hers. Laura and I both agreed that these deceptive pills are, are such a threat to younger kids because if they aren't aware that this counterfeiting is happening. You would look at one of these counterfeits and would not be able to tell it apart from a real pill from a legitimate pharmacy. We also both shared a common feeling about how social media has played a negative impact on the rise of counterfeit pills. The ability of dealers to connect directly to young people through social media is a very scary reality. These platforms are being exploited by people that have bad intentions. Laura wants parents and young people to understand how deadly and prolific fentanyl is just that it's everywhere and how it's being marketed deceptively and education and information are our first line of defense.
