‘Freshman Dies from Fentanyl Overdose After Taking Fake Percocet’

A 19-year-old col­lege stu­dent from New York trag­i­cal­ly lost her life after tak­ing a sin­gle fake Per­co­cet pill that was laced with the dead­ly opi­oid fentanyl. 

The sto­ry of Paige Gib­bons high­lights the dev­as­tat­ing impact of the coun­ter­feit drug cri­sis sweep­ing the nation, with fen­tanyl-relat­ed over­dos­es claim­ing thou­sands of lives every year.

Paige, a stu­dent at Hobart and William Smith Col­leges, had dreams of becom­ing a doc­tor and even took the ini­tia­tive to teach life-sav­ing CPR to her peers.

How­ev­er, dur­ing a Thanks­giv­ing break in 2022, Paige and her friends decid­ed to try what they believed was Per­co­cet, a pre­scrip­tion pain med­ica­tion known for its addic­tive properties.

Trag­i­cal­ly, the pill they took was not Per­co­cet at all, but pure fen­tanyl — a syn­thet­ic opi­oid that is up to 100 times more potent than mor­phine. Just two mil­ligrams of fen­tanyl, the equiv­a­lent of about 15 grains of table salt, is a lethal dose. 

Paige’s par­ents, David and Kate Gib­bons, shared their daugh­ter’s sto­ry in the hopes of rais­ing aware­ness and pre­vent­ing oth­er fam­i­lies from expe­ri­enc­ing this unimag­in­able tragedy.