One pill can kill. An Overdose Awareness walk will be held Sunday in Alex Neville’s memory.
From the boy’s obituary: “Alexander Hastings Neville, 14 years old, died on 23 June 2020 due to an overdose of fentanyl — a drug he mistook for something else.”
Alex was a smart, sensitive, curious kid, prone to a philosophical and distinctively teenage anxiety. He had recently switched schools, was learning online due to the pandemic. He also used pot as a way to, as his parents see it now, self-medicate. In classic style, Alex learned the pharmacology and horticulture of hemp.
The day before he died, Alex sat down at their kitchen table in Aliso Viejo and told his parents he was taking Oxycontin. That little pill designed to eliminate pain. The one that induces a euphoria so powerful it has addicted millions around the globe.
It had been less than two weeks, but he was done, Alex said. He wanted to return to the Long Beach treatment program where he went months earlier to deal with his anxiety, to get back on track. His parents made the call. Everyone felt hopeful.