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MORGAN — A man has been taken into custody on suspicion of multiple drug charges, including distribution of opioids — an action police say resulted in the overdose and near death of a teenager last week.
On Sunday evening, Morgan County sheriff's deputies arrested Parker Pentz, 19, of Morgan, after executing a search warrant on his property. There, the sheriff's office said deputies removed marijuana, meth and cocaine, along with lists of transactions and names of people Pentz had been selling to.
Investigators say Pentz sold a synthetic opioid containing fentanyl, which is found in the drug known as “pink,” to a 17-year-old boy.
"It hit me instantly, and that wasn't very normal," the teenager, who asked not to be identified, told KSL News Monday. "I sat on my bed kind of panicking and wondering what it is that I took."
The teen soon passed out. Fortunately, his dad was home and found him struggling to breathe.
“His tongue was basically lodged all the way down, so he wasn't getting any air," the teen's father said.
When deputies arrived, the teenager was unconscious and had no heartbeat.
"Personally, I thought he was dead," Morgan County sheriff's deputy Gary Dudley said. “As I was working on this young man, I honestly pictured his funeral.”
Deputies administered two doses of Narcan, an opiate antidote that helps people who have stopped breathing due to an opiate-related drug overdose start breathing again.
The teen started breathing and regained consciousness on the way to the hospital.
"We got lucky. It was a miracle — straight up miracle," Dudley said.
Now, the high school junior wants other Utah teenagers to know the dangers one pill — or even half a pill — can have.
"I feel like it's a big turning point for me," the teen said. “(Drug dealers) play it off as they're your best friend and they're trying to help you have fun and all this, but in reality, they don't care. They just care where the money is coming from."
As for this teenager’s parents, they hope other parents learn from their heartache.
“I would never want another parent to have to go through that; or worse, have to end up burying their child," the teen’s mother said.
"Know what your children are doing," the teen’s father said.
As for Pentz, he was booked into jail for investigation of multiple drug charges, along with child endangerment and reckless endangerment.
Contributing: Ladd Egan
