Through skateboarding and spending time with friends and family — some of Collin McLaren’s favorite activities — members of the Yelm community gathered to honor McLaren’s life in the second annual Skate for Collin event.
During the event on Aug. 20 at the Yelm Skatepark, more than 40 people gathered to skate, share memories related to McLaren and spread awareness of the dangers related to drug use and fentanyl.
“We’re here today skating for Collin. Collin is my son. He left this earth on May 1, 2022,” McLaren’s mother, Karisa Carpenter, said to those in attendance at the event. “He snorted a partial line of what is known on the streets as a ‘Perc 30.’ He laid in his bed until his respiration slowed and finally stopped. He was most likely gone in a couple of minutes and would’ve needed Narcan, which is a medication that can reverse an overdose. He would’ve needed it administered right away to reverse the effects. By the time I found my son, it was too late, despite my desperate measures to save his life. Sadly, this is becoming all too common in America. There is a new F word, and everyone needs to know it. It’s fentanyl.”
Carpenter said that fentanyl-related deaths have been the leading cause of death in Americans aged 18 to 45 since 2019.
According to Carpenter, fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine, and 50 times more potent than heroin. She added that fentanyl is extremely powerful and the most potent narcotic drug in the medical field.
“Fentanyl-related deaths have been occurring since 2012. This growing problem was really brought to light when the pandemic hit. This is when Collin began experimenting with pills,” Carpenter said. “Sports, school and friends were taken from our kids. Jobs, security and sanity, taken from the parents. Many began turning to substances to help deal with boredom, depression and fear. Fentanyl-related deaths more than doubled from 2021 to 2022 in Thurston County, alone. Fentanyl is solely responsible for over 70,000 of the 108,000 documented drug overdoses in 2022. These numbers just keep rising. Most of the fentanyl is produced in China, particularly Wuhan, which is ironic because it was ground zero for COVID, as well. It’s being trafficked in our country through international mail.”
She added that fentanyl-related deaths have doubled from 32,754 to 64,178 in two years, from April 2019 to April 2021.
President Donald Trump attempted to combat the smuggling of fentanyl into the United States in 2018 when he signed a bipartisan package of bills related to opioid addiction, Carpenter said.
“Included in the bill is the Synthetic Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, also known as the STOP Act. It aims at curbing the flow of opioids sent through the mail. The postal service said the STOP Act significantly improved its ability to seize fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from the mail,” Carpenter said.
As the United States began to crack down on the fentanyl flow from China to America, Chinese fentanyl producers began to shift their primary market to Mexican cartels, in order to avoid the regulations through the STOP Act, Carpenter said.
“The drug cartels began to favor synthetic fentanyl, which is cheap, highly addictive and highly profitable. The drug cartels press the counterfeit pills, and they look identical to the real pharmaceutical pills,” Carpenter said. “These pills are then smuggled over the Southern border.”
In 2022, the DEA seized more than 58.3 million fentanyl-laced fake-pills, and over 13,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, according to Carpenter. She added that the fentanyl seizures in 2022 equates to more than 387.9 million lethal doses.
“That’s a lot of fentanyl, a lot of deaths. These pills are made to look identical to pharmaceutical medications such as Xanax, Adderall, Oxycodone and it’s also being found in marijuana concentrates on the streets. There are also bright colorful fentanyl pills referred to as rainbow fentanyl, and they resemble candy,” Carpenter said. “My son thought he was using Percocet, which in a real pill would be Oxycodone and acetaminophen. My son’s toxicology report showed nothing in his system except for 8.9 nanograms of fentanyl. Blood concentrations of just 7 nanograms have been found to cause fatal poisoning.”
She added that just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose of fentanyl, which is just a couple grains of salt.
“Fentanyl does not care who you are, what color your skin is, what your social economic status is,” she said. “Kids as young as 12 years old who’ve never done a drug in their life are trying a pill that their friend gives them, and then their parents are finding them dead in their bed. Toddlers are dying because they’re being exposed to fentanyl in parks. They’re being exposed from their parents.”
She added in recent years celebrities such as Prince, Mac Miller, Lil Peep, Tom Petty and Coolio all died from fentanyl poisoning.
“I never thought this would be my life. Nobody thinks this would happen to them. My son did not want to die. We sat and talked about his day and joked around a bit before we said good night on April 30. He told me about all the plans he had for the next day with his girlfriend. I had no idea it’d be the last time I’d hear his voice or see his face,” Carpenter said. “This is not normal. This is not going to stop. Our government is not stopping it. It’s a game of Russian roulette, and the only way to stay safe is to stay sober. No drug is safe on the streets.”
Carpenter said she’ll continue spreading awareness in her son’s honor.
Jeremy Reimers, a Yelm High School graduate and friend of McLaren, spoke to the Nisqually Valley News about what his friend meant to him.
“We were best buddies since elementary school, man. We started going to school together in kindergarten, and we were friends all the way up through high school. All through that time he was one of my best buddies,” Reimers said. “We didn’t even have to be doing anything specific. Hanging out with him was always a good time. He was always having fun and was always a good guy. Whenever I needed somebody, I always knew I could count on him.”
Reimers added that the two loved to attend YHS football games together and would typically enjoy an El Rey Burro burrito prior to the game.
“His passing tore me up a lot. It was really hard. I was sad for a long time, but we do events like this and think about all the good times we had,” Reimers said. “It was hard because a year or so before he died, we weren’t hanging out as much. I really regret that, but I can still remember the good times.”
He added that it’s amazing to see everyone gather at the Yelm Skatepark in honor of McLaren and the Skate for Collin event.
“I drove all the way from Pullman for the event, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. L[ong] L[ive] C[ollin], man,” Reimers said.
Carpenter’s significant other, Josh James, said he felt humbled to see McLaren become involved and interested in skateboarding.
“When I first got with Karisa, Collin took into skateboarding, kind of through me, I think. I always believe that’s where he picked it up from. Watching him get into skating was awesome. It was humbling to see him pick it up because I know how special skateboarding is,” James said. “We had a lot of fun skating together, and watching him progress was awesome.”
He said it’s incredible to see the community gather to honor McLaren’s life.
“The community needs this. It’s important to get that message out there on how serious fentanyl is,” James said. “It’s important for kids to know it and be educated about it. It means a lot to have the opportunity to come out here and be able to do this, and spread awareness by educating the kids.
“Collin was very kind,” he added. “I don’t think you could make him mad. I remember one time his mom and I were standing in the kitchen, and he told his mom, ‘You just have to be kind to everyone, you just have to be a good person.’ I remember being like, wow, that’s who he is. A lot of his friends would agree, too. He was very humble, kind and always caring for his friends.”
He added that McLaren once mentioned to one of his friends that he’d one day be featured in the Thrasher magazine, which provides skating news, photos and other concepts related to the sport.
“Sure enough, after his passing, through the connection I have, I reached out to Thrasher and got him in there. To be able to do that meant the world to me,” James said. “It was an honor to be able to do that.”
