Fentanyl was killing their friends – and no one was talking about it. So these teens stepped up

A growing cadre of teens are stepping up to educate their peers on the dangers of fentanyl. Kyle Santoro (far right) is seen with actors in his film Fentanyl High (Left to right: Chance Sojbeck, Ryan Lin, Ashton Ross, Anna Stubstad). Illustration: Alex Cochran/The Guardian Illustration: Alex Cochran/The Guardian

Eli Myers was only 15 when his close friend and classmate Chloe Kreutzer died from taking a counterfeit Percocet pill filled with fentanyl.

Initially, he said, the response from officials at his Los Angeles high school was stony silence. Even years later, the information he and his classmates got about the risks of fentanyl poisoning amounted to little more than a droning lecture in health class, he said.