Six West Point Cadets Overdose on Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine During Florida Spring Break
Two overdosed while “performing life-saving measures.”
Six West Point cadets spring break in Florida overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine in a horrific incident. Reports indicate two of them are in critical condition.
Paramedics responded to a short-term Airbnb rental home Thursday in Wilton Manors and found the six cadets in cardiac arrest from a drug overdose, according to The Orlando Sun-Sentinel.
Two of the victims remained in critical condition Friday, Wilton Manors police confirmed to The Post. At least one of the victims was treated and released, according to NBC Miami.
The group — all men in their early 20s — were in town to celebrate spring break from the US Military Academy at West Point in New York, officials said.
Not all of the cadets were using drugs. Two overdosed while “performing life-saving measures.”
Fort Lauderdale Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Gollan told Local10 that two of the people who overdosed were sickened because they tried to perform CPR on the initial four overdose victims. He said the opioid-overdose-reversing drug naloxone, which is sold under the brand name Narcan, was administered to revive the victims.
Neighbors described seeing the spring breakers being carried out of the rental home crowded with young vacationers.
‘We saw paramedics pulling the kids out of the house, unconscious, just laying them on the grass,’ Dana Fumosa, who lives a few doors down, told NBC6.
Four of the patients were taken to Broward Health Medical Center, and the remaining two were transported to Holy Cross Hospital.
By Friday, one of the patients had been released from the hospital, two remained in critical condition after being intubated, and three were in stable condition.
I pray for the full recovery of these young men. My heart is breaking for their families and this country.
The motto of West Point is “Duty. Honor. Country“. Unfortunately, it appears that at least four cadets forgot it was not honorable to ignore duty and break the laws of this county by using illegal drugs. However, in a “woke” military that values diversity and social justice over military readiness and discipline, perhaps this is the new normal we can expect from our elite military academies?
But beyond the overdose emergency, this situation underscores severe problems that have gone under the radar amid all the other crises that have struck the nation and further exacerbated by the Biden administration.
To begin with, the most significant threats to this nation’s security come ultimately from China, not Russia. China is the biggest supplier of the components used to synthesize fentanyl.
The deadliest issue in the U.S.-China relationship right now isn’t the potential for military conflict over Taiwan, but the thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S. each year from illicit fentanyl made from Chinese raw materials.
China’s reluctance to tighten controls on chemical production and exports has spurred a clash with U.S. legislators, and will be the focus of a long-awaited report this week on its role in fueling the flow of drugs that Mexican cartels process into synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The report from the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, to be released Tuesday, must also contend with Beijing’s politicizing of counternarcotics cooperation, which has stymied efforts to reduce the supply of fentanyl and related chemicals flooding U.S. streets.
In a nutshell: China just took down at least four future US Army officers without firing a shot.
Next, Team Biden’s epic failure on the border means more fentanyl and other drugs and medications laced with it are pouring over the border, further threatening the men and women in the age bracket most useful to defend this country.
…Gov. Greg Abbott is blasting the administration at nearly every campaign speech for not doing more.
On Thursday, Abbott, a Republican running for a third term in office, spoke to a conservative group in Washington, D.C., and later to law enforcement on the Texas border and accused Biden of ignoring the problem.
“I don’t know if the Biden administration even cares about it,” Abbott said in Weslaco near the Mexico border. “The president of the United States is doing nothing about it.”
Abbott says Texas law enforcement deserves the credit, after seizing more than 1,300 pounds of fentanyl in the last year.
“Texas is having to step up and do the federal government’s job,” he said at the forum hosted by the Heritage Foundation.
Hopefully, the magnitude of today’s emergency will drill into young minds the dangers of fentanyl, which has a very narrow dose range between desired effects and death. The tragedy may also underscore the lacing of other drugs with this potentially lethal substance.
In terms of the other points: I don’t see the occupant of the Oval Office or his VP making decisions regarding China or the border that will alleviate the problem.
In conclusion: I recommend that our military leaders take a break from their “Critical Race Theory” reading and start promoting more discipline and an awareness that drugs must be viewed as a Chinese weapon by the men and women of our military.
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Comments
I do hope that they all survive to face court-martial.
Won’t be court martial led – fast track to be aide-de-camp. Generals today want aides with combat experience. Well … here you go.. war on drug commandos
General Corn Pop is looking for a new aide.
Hunters new bodyguards
Even the 2 who did not use drugs and became ill from contact with overdose victims while providing car?
Seems a bit harsh there.
Yes, them too. They were present during the nose fest. They were not responding to a 911 call.
You don’t know anything. They may have had no idea what was going on. They in fact put their own lives on the line to try to save these 4z
Shame on you…Shame…
Ridiculous statement
kyrrat got it right. If nothing else, Violation of Article 133—Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, doing nothing while regulations were being broken.
There are a number of other applicable articles from the UCMJ that would be applicable. Especially Article 134-which would be unconstitutional in civilian law, yet has been upheld many times by the courts: Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this chapter may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, special, or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and shall be punished at the discretion of that court.
I meant E Howard Hunt got it right….
This is indicative of a broader problem the military has been facing with drug issues for the last 10-years or more. It gets very little attention in the media.
The military had an ENORMOUS drug problem coming out of Vietnam. While there was a weak drug testing regime adopted during Carter’s tenure, it wasn’t until Reagan’s first term in office did DoD get really serious about ending drug abuse in the ranks. Through the 80s, DoD made TREMENDOUS progress in cleaning up the military and that progress was largely continued through the next 20-years. But, in the early 2000s, it started to become a more serious issue again and it worsened as Afghanistan and Iraq became quagmires.
As the military – particularly the service academies -loosened entrance standards to achieve a more ‘diverse’ officer corps, these kinds of issues became more prevalent. Make of that what you will.
With respect to what the outcome will be here, usually failed drug tests result in NJP and administrative separation. But, these cadets have embarrassed West Point in a very public way. Court-martial isn’t an impossibility (presuming the WH doesn’t get involved) and become even more likely if the cadets are far enough along in their education to have become obligated service members. My guess is the cadet who purchased the drugs will be court-martialed and the rest administratively separated…presuming they’re non-ob.
Not sure why this comment ended up here. It wasn’t intended to be a reply to anyone.
“My guess is the cadet who purchased the drugs will be court-martialed and the rest administratively separated…presuming they’re non-ob.”
What does “non-ob” mean?
Not obligated to further service. For they first two years- a Cadet or Midshipman at a service academy can quit. If they don’t turn in their resignation letter on the first day of the third year- they incur a service obligation. If they’re bounced out or resign after then- they have to serve as enlisted personnel. Not certain of the time obligation anymore.
This may be enough of a blackeye to USMA that they decide to hold courts-martial for the cadets. Normally for drugs it’s all handled administratively. A conviction at court martial would be a felony.
It doesn’t take a court-martial to get the boot from the Academies. These four are on their way out, and would have been anyway when they popped positive on their next piss-test.
How many of the six got in on merit card how many with political influence?
As football players, they probably got in on athletic ability after spending a year at the prep school.
Sh-t flows downhill.
Just look who is at the top in our government. It’s flowed into West Point.
“Unfortunately, it appears that at least four cadets forgot it was not honorable to ignore duty and break the laws of this county by using illegal drugs. However, in a “woke” military that values diversity and social justice over military readiness and discipline, perhaps this is the new normal we can expect from our elite military academies?”
Do I not remember that a few years ago, the honor code (that’s been there since its founding) of “cheat once and get cashiered” got rescinded?
You remember correctly, although I think it was reinstated because of blowback over the light punishment given most of the the 70+ cadets (50 or so athletes) who got caught cheating on a remote calculus exam. Cadets who confessed were put into the “willful admission” program that let the cheaters stay at the academy on probation, although most had to repeat a year. The policy was rescinded because it, not surprisingly, wasn’t stopping honor code violations!
surprising there are no pictures or names.
NOT
I do hope they recover with no lasting ill effects. But I do think there is a bit of “best left unsaid” to the story.
If they choose to stay in Wilton Manors because it is Wilton Manors, it is possible they were there to celebrate more than Spring Break. That reason could also be connected with the fentanyl use
It sounds like you know something about Wilton Manors that some of us don’t know.
Opium war in reverse?
Fentanyl, again.
Arab Spring, Persian Spring, Syrian Spring, Slavic Spring, and, NOW (pun intended), Spring Break.
Good riddance.
Yeah but are they down with trans-genderism? That the question we need to know
How can this be? It’s impossible!
Vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training are supposed to solve all of the nation’s problems.
“Not all of the cadets were using drugs. Two overdosed while “performing life-saving measures.””
I don’t believe that. Those kids have been watching too much TV. A sloppy rescuer could only ingest a tiny fraction of what the initial victim ingested.
For a rescuer to get a fatal dose of the drugs, the initial victim would have to have taken enough to kill them many times over and have a lot of it in the mouth. That would have killed the initial victim in seconds.
It actually happens to innocent people. More than a few EMS have been affected by this
You obviously don’t understand how very little fentanyl is needed for a fatal overdose then. It is highly likely that the original victim ingested enough to kill half the people in attendance.
These guys made a reckless decision to partake in recreational drug use. They knew that as Cadets the use of drugs carries a higher penalty than that of the average person. They knew that drugs laced or faked with fentanyl are very prevalent from their mandatory classes.
They chose poorly. Maybe this episode will cause the public to push our politicians to become less disinterested in allowing this and other poisons to flow through our borders.
“[T]wo of the people who overdosed were sickened because they tried to perform CPR on the initial four overdose victims.”
Huh? How does trying to perform CPR on an overdose victim cause you to overdose, too? Are trace amounts of fentanyl somehow enough to trigger overdose?
Ingesting as little as 2 milligrams is life threatening. Fentanyl is enormously dangerous. That’s why the images show responding LEO in protective gear; you do not want any level of exposure to fentanyl.
Thank you for that explanation, I had no idea. It certainly explains the Biden administration’s policy of doing nothing to stop the flow of fentanyl across the US/Mexican border. As we all know, whatever affirmatively damages the American people the most, that’s administration policy.
Come on, man…it’s 2022. What’s the downside here?
None that I can think of. With a commander in chief like Joe Biden, you might as well be led into battle by George Floyd.
The local cops ran a sting on the dealer and caught him. He did not have any of the laced cocaine on him when they arrested him. Charged with trafficking and $50k bond.
In his mug shot, he looks like a Boy Scout. /s
Don’t blame Biden or China or anyone else for the choices they made.
Six West Point Cadets Overdose on Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine During Florida Spring Break
And I’m supposed to care why, exactly?
Our country’s defense is in the best of hands.
But was Andrew Gillum on hand?
The total destruction of our Military, one of the last pieces of our country that Americans trusted has accelerated under Biden. It’s gone from being trained to fight to weekly woke classes on diversity taught by trans sexual soldiers. We will soon be in no position to fight any battle if it isn’t halted, senior officers dismissed and returned to what it should be.