Michelle Leopold with her son Trevor

Just one pill: fentanyl deaths on the rise in Marin and Sonoma counties

By: Nikki Silverstein | Jan 31, 2023

Trevor Leopold would have turned 22 on Jan. 30. Instead, he’s “forever 18,” his mother says.

When Greenbrae resident Michelle Leopold received the news that her 18-year-old son died in his Sonoma State University dorm room, she didn’t need to wait for the coroner’s report to know what had killed him.

Although it was November 2019, before most parents had heard of the fentanyl crisis, there was no doubt in Michelle Leopold’s mind that this powerful synthetic opioid was the culprit. Sadly, she was well aware of the dangerous drug because her son’s close friend had succumbed to a fentanyl overdose the previous year.

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2 Comments

  1. I have tried twice on 2 different articles to “read the full story here” and the connection did not work. One went to the IJ website where they tried to sell you a subscription (the article about the high school webinar) and never did allow you to read the article, and the other did not work at all and I clicked on it twice (about the Sonoma State student death). So your site is set up well, but either print the complete articles on the site or somehow fix the connections to the rest of the story you start talking about. Thank you, Anne Aull

    1. Hi Anne,

      Thanks for bringing our attention to the broken link on the blog post you referenced – I’ve gone in and fixed it. Also, we are going to try to post less Marin IJ content moving forward due to the limitations for non-subscribers (unfortunately we can’t post the full article, just an excerpt).

      We appreciate your feedback!

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