Teen deaths from fentanyl rising quickly: 'It has a hold on me, and I don't know why'
LOS ANGELES — The summer before 14-year-old Alexander Neville would have entered high school, he sat both of his parents down at the kitchen table in their Aliso Viejo home and told them he'd been taking Oxycontin pills he bought on Snapchat.
He had self-medicated with pot in the past, but this was different.
"It has a hold on me, and I don't know why," he told them in 2020.
Alexander's mother, Amy Neville, said they called a treatment program the next day and were waiting to hear back on rehab facilities. Alexander got a haircut, went to lunch with his dad and said goodnight to his parents before going up to his bedroom at the end of the day.
The following morning, Neville went to wake Alexander for his orthodontist appointment. She found him unresponsive. His skin was blue, and he wasn't breathing. After his parents called 911, Alexander was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:59 a.m. on June 23. The drug treatment facility called the Nevilles four minutes later.
Later that day, a narcotics task force arrived at the Neville family home and told them Alexander's
