Henry Roldán
San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb comes into this season not only intent on destroying any opposing offense in front of him, but also on fighting and conquering a strong enemy who has already won a family-related battle and whom he believes cannot win the war.
In an article published by The Athletic, the San Francisco ace revealed the difficult situation he had to live through during the preseason, specifically hours before his wedding last December, when his cousin, Kade Webb, died after unconsciously consuming fentanyl.
As Logan Webb told Andrew Baggarly, Kade, who was practically like a brother to him, went to a dealer who provided him with Percocet, an opioid pain reliever that in some cases is prescribed by a doctor. What he received, however, was a mixture of fentanyl , a painkiller that can be 100 times more powerful than morphine and much cheaper than cocaine or heroin.
The effect it had on Kade was immediate. The 20-year-old was barely able to reach medical assistance when he fell lifeless on the asphalt as a consequence of fentanyl, which has become a public health problem in the United States for a decade.
Logan Webb vs Fentanyl
Due to this painful loss, Logan Webb took advantage of his presence in the Giants to request help from specialists.
After several weeks of grief, Webb returned to the organization and was able to join Shana Alexander, a clinical psychologist and director of the Giants’ Employee Assistance Program, to begin an awareness campaign that will begin with visits to high school assemblies in the Sacramento area.
“It’s crazy. I didn’t realize the numbers were so out of control. That’s how I think about it: life is hard and people deal with things. A child who was struggling might need that little break. I’m not saying it’s OK, but for a kid to take something that kills him … it’s not fair to anybody. Whatever I can do to help make people aware, I want to do it. We can’t just sit back and be okay with this.”
Logan Webb on fentanyl.
According to Baggarly, a New York Times report on fentanyl victims cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; there were nearly 108,000 drug deaths in the United States last year, a skyrocketing number. Out of these deaths, many are derived from counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl that teens and young adults buy on social media, making drug-related deaths the leading preventable cause of death among people aged 18 to 45.
