Loved ones left behind hope to warn public of the dangers of designer drugs
Ashton Kirk, left, with his brother Matthew, and father Brandon Kirk.
Ashton Earl Kirk
Ashton Kirk rides his unicycle.
Ashton Kirk, center, enjoys an activity with friends.
With thousands of crucial yet everyday people comprising the Utah Valley community, the Daily Herald would like to further highlight and share the real stories and impact of those who have recently departed. “A bit more of the story” reflects those efforts and remembers those lives.
Brandon and Joann Kirk, of Saratoga Springs, felt they have to tell their son’s story, even if it only saves one other life.
Ashton Kirk was 23 when he died May 24. The suddenness of his death shocked his family and friends — many of whom had only been with him hours before. That Sunday night, he’d recently returned from an off-roading trip with his father, Brandon, and his brother, Matthew.
What made his death even more difficult for the family is that Ashton was on the cusp of some very exciting things in his life. Ashton had just graduated magna cum laude from Utah Valley University, with no debt. His first day as a full-time employee at Wavetronix in Provo was that Monday.
But Ashton didn’t show up for work that day, because he died of an accidental overdose of a “designer drug.” The term refers to drugs that are manufactured from legal drugs, but combined in such a way that they resemble the effects of illegal drugs. According to Project Know, an educational website focused on understanding addiction, designer drugs can actually be 50 times stronger than their illegal counterparts.
“Making them more dangerous is the fact that they are easily accessible in retail outlets and online,” reads the website’s description of designer drugs. This is how Ashton got his fentanyl analog designer drug, the Kirks believe.
But the Kirks didn’t find out Ashton’s cause of death for 12 weeks. Designer drugs that include fentanyl — which is a legal, but very potent pain-killer — only need a small dose of the legal drug to be effective. There was only a trace amount of the drug in Ashton’s system — and that was only found after diligent research and screening by some of the best medical examiners and labs in the country.
From the amount found in Ashton’s system, the medical examiners think it was probably only his first or second time taking the drug. In fact, it was such a small trace that the Kirks were given the choice of what to put for the cause of death on Ashton’s death certificate — “Unknown,” or “Accidental overdose of fentanyl analog.” They made the hard decision to say what he died of, so they could advocate for others.
“We were completely naïve that these drugs were out there,” Brandon Kirk said. “These drug makers aren’t a drug cartel. They are just people compounding drugs in their home. And they take a legitimate drug and just tweak it, to stay ahead of the law.”
When the Kirks heard about the Park City teens who died in early September, possibly from another designer drug called “pink,” they knew they had to speak up.
“This is happening too often to these young kids. It’s cheap and it’s online,” Brandon said. “There are literally endless numbers of drugs that can be made this way.”
The Kirks are still grieving for a life so senselessly and suddenly snuffed out. Ashton wasn’t perfect, the Kirks will readily admit. He had some life and relationship stresses, and had always struggled with sleeping problems and anxiety. But the Kirks believe he naively turned to this option just to help him sleep. And it backfired.
“He’s absolutely more than an overdose statistic,” Brandon said. “He wasn’t a junkie. We want people to realize that anybody is vulnerable.”
Ashton was much more than how he died. At his funeral, his family was amazed and touched at how many people from all walks of life came up to them, and shared how he befriended them.
“He was a friend to the friendless,” Joann Kirk said. “They would say, ‘When I had nobody, I had Ashton. Ashton was there.'”
Additionally, Ashton was very frugal and level-headed, according to his brother Matthew Kirk. Ashton always found the cheapest phone plans, Matthew said, and saved and planned ahead, even buying a car with cash.
Though the family said Ashton drove like a grandma, he had a fun sense of humor and even used to ride a six-foot-tall unicycle. He was also very musically talented and wrote his own songs, even though he was never professionally trained.
Above all else, Ashton always had a positive spin on life. Just a few years ago, his positivism had prompted the family to come up with “Ashton’s Law” — the antithesis to Murphy’s Law.
“With Ashton’s usual optimistic approach to life, he helped us view things in a more positive light and to realize that things can and will go right just as frequently as they can go wrong. ‘Ashton’s Law,’ as we came to refer to it, says that ‘whatever can go right, will,'” Brandon said. “It supports the possibility of things going in accordance with planned outcomes and it incorporates the idea that we have the ability to influence the results.”
The Kirks themselves are now looking for ways to influence the results of Ashton’s death. They want to raise more awareness of the danger of designer drugs, how easily accessible they are, how deadly they can be, and how stealthy the drug dealers are.
Joann remembers she’d seen a special about designer drugs only a short time before Ashton’s death. While it was important information, it didn’t sink in, because it didn’t apply to the family at the time. But now she feels much differently.
“When you read stories like this, you don’t make a connection. It’s not your story. But you should make it your story, so this doesn’t happen to you. If one person can make this their story, and find help for someone you love, then that helps,” Joann said.
