ALAMOSA — Matt Riviere, a 59-year-old IT professional from Monument, Colorado addressed an audience at Ortega Middle School Wednesday night, impassioned by an experience that is every parent’s worst nightmare. 

The presentation was offered as part of a partnership between Alamosa County Public Health Department and the Alamosa School District. 

Before beginning his story where fentanyl is at the heart, Riviere clarified the difference between poisoning, which is unintentional, and an overdose, which is where someone knows what substance they are taking and ingest too much. He says many deaths from fentanyl are poisonings. 

In July of 2021, Riviere’s two sons – Andrew, 21, and Stephen, 19 – each took a pill they thought was oxycodone. Although they had both experimented with drugs before, like nicotine and then high-potency marijuana, this was the first time they had tried painkillers like oxycodone. 

Riviere gave the audience a glimpse into what his sons were like, young and vibrant men also struggling with issues that are not uncommon.  

“Andrew, my oldest, was my goofy kid. He just liked to make you smile and laugh. He was also a mad scientist. He liked to make things and, usually, his experiments ended up being blown up on our property somewhere. He was also really good at playing the guitar. 

“Stephen was 19,” Riviere continued. “He was my academic and athletic kid. He graduated from high school with a 4.2 average, and he didn’t even work that hard.” Riviere describes a teenager who had his goals in life posted on a whiteboard in his bedroom and had earned enough college credits in high school to graduate with an Associate’s degree. “He got into University of Colorado - Colorado Springs and just had two years left.” 

The boys were best of friends and worst of enemies, he said. One day, they’re hugging each other and the next, they’re punching each other. They also both “struggled with mental health issues.” 

Andrew had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder at a very young age and was put on medication that had unwanted side effects. “We knew from the time he was very young that there was something with him that just wasn’t right.”  Stephen also struggled with anxiety and depression and had been on and off medication, too, but his mental health issues “weren’t debilitating.”  

When Covid hit, “both boys were really struggling”. But, Riviere believes, it was an event that happened four months before his sons died that had the largest impact. 

“My wife of 26 years went into a bi-polar manic episode and ended our marriage overnight’” he said. “Saturday, the marriage was great. Sunday, the marriage was over. So, you can see how things were transitioning. Drama and trauma. 

“Their drug journey started with flavored vape,” he said. “That dialed up to nicotine, and my youngest got addicted. Then they started vaping THC.”  

When marijuana was first legalized in Colorado for medicinal purposes, he said, the THC content was around 10 percent. Retail marijuana now has a THC content of around 80 – 90 percent. “High potency THC is leading to schizophrenia and psychosis,” he said. “The data is overwhelming.” 

It should be noted that a review of studies, including a 2020 study conducted by the National Institute of Health, confirms that chronic, heavy use of high-potency THC can lead to psychotic and schizophrenic episodes in individuals who are already at-risk. 

Riviere believes a constellation of factors, including drama, trauma and use of high-potency THC, led to his sons trying what they thought was the painkiller “oxy”.  

“But it wasn’t,” he said. “It was laced with fentanyl. My boys died side by side in their Colorado Springs apartment. And we think that was the first time they had tried it.” 

Riviere then laid out some facts about fentanyl.  

Fentanyl was created in the sixties and started out as a pain reliever used for medicinal purposes. It is extremely potent and, in medical settings, is only manufactured under strict control. “That is not the case when it’s being mixed in jungles or shacks.”  

Fentanyl is also highly lethal with only 2 milligrams (“two thousandths of a gram”) being fatal. “As much fentanyl as can be placed on the tip of a pencil is fatal.” 

Riviere then held up a package of sugar. “If this was fentanyl, how many people do you think would be killed?” The audience yelled out 100, 500, 1,000.  

“The answer is 1500 people,” Riviere said. “If you don’t think this is a crisis, your head is in the sand. This,” he held up the packet again, “is killing the country. In 2022, there was a drug bust of 114 pounds of pure fentanyl outside of Idaho Springs, enough to kill 25 million people. One bust, 25 million people. Just imagine what’s gotten through. In 2022, DEA confiscated 50.6 million fentanyl pills.” 

In 2021, 107,000 people died from drug related deaths, 70 percent related to fentanyl. In 2023, 112,000 people died from drug related deaths. “If a Southwest Airlines plane crashed every day for a year, less people would die than die from Fentanyl.” 

Riviere also discussed the highly addictive nature of fentanyl where, he said, a person can become addicted after just three uses and the withdrawal is “awful”. Drug dealers are “absolutely trying to addict you, and they’re going after our youth.” 

Fentanyl is also being cut with heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine, oxycodone, Percocet and, recently, “street Adderall.” 

After relating a string of heartbreaking stories, Riviere says he strongly believes that education is the answer, including education of coaches, educators, adults of influence and others.  

“I don’t tell kids ‘don’t use drugs’. That won’t work. I just hope to make them think differently. Show them the risk and hope that might reach that one kid who decides not to take the chance. If I can save just one kid, doing all these presentations are worth it.”