CHEROKEE COUNTY, Kans. — In southeast Kansas, Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves is encouraging parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of Fentanyl.

It’s a deadly synthetic opioid that is being pressed into fake pills or cut into heroin, cocaine, and other street drugs. DEA Laboratory testing reveals that 6 out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills now contain a potentially lethal dose of the drug. Recently, the southeast Kansas community lost a teenager to an overdose.

“I think it’s important for parents not to be naive and think ‘My kid’s a good kid, he does sports, he gets good grades,’ whatever the situation is. Because the reality is the market is flooded with these counterfeit pills and, schools are no exception. Despite the best efforts to keep them out of schools, they’re in schools,” said Groves.

Whether you think your kid is involved or not, a conversation with them could still save a life.

“If their kid isn’t involved, they probably have friends that might be so maybe just empowering their children to be good friends to their classmates and help them understand the dangers that they might be assuming if they’re taking pills that didn’t come from their doctor,” said Groves.

He says if you’re not getting the pills from your doctor or from your pharmacist, hand to hand, then you really don’t know what’s in it.

“There’s really no way of knowing because the drug traffickers that are manufacturing these fentanyl pills overseas, they’re making them to look identical to Oxycodone, Percocet, Xanax, things like that,” Groves added.

Groves insists that ‘one pill can kill’ is more than a slogan.

“I would emphasize the importance of parents to learn what they can about this. The ‘one pill can kill’ is more than just a slogan – it’s a reality. And so they need to have a conversation whether it’s comfortable or not with their kids about the dangers, the deadly dangers associated with taking something that wasn’t prescribed to them,” he said.

Cherokee County deputies are also now carrying Narcan in case they arrive to a non-responsive person prior to EMS personnel.