Cause of death found for Stanford student who died on campus

Eitan Michael Weiner, 19, died on the Stanford campus on Jan. 17, 2020. Eitan Michael Weiner, 19, died on the Stanford campus on Jan. 17, 2020. Photo: Courtesy Of Weiner Family Photo: Courtesy Of Weiner Family Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Cause of death found for Stanford student who died on campus 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A Stanford University student found dead at the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house in January died of an accidental fentanyl overdose, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office announced Tuesday.

Eitan Michael Weiner, a 19-year-old sophomore, was the son of two university employees, Amir Weiner, an associate professor of history, and Julia Weiner, an associate vice president for medical center development. His older sister also attended Stanford.

According to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, Weiner was found unresponsive on Jan. 17 at his fraternity house on Lomita Drive. He was pronounced dead by first responders at 10:21 a.m. As noted by Palo Alto Online, later that day Stanford's Department of Public Safety issued a warning about counterfeit prescription pills that contain fentanyl.

"The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating reports of illegally manufactured pills containing fentanyl that have been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. Specifically, blue pills, round in shape, stamped with the letter 'M' and the number '30' have been located in the U.S. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine only it is 50-100 times more potent and can be highly toxic even in small doses," the alert warns.

In late January, Stanford Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole issued an additional campus-wide warning. "We are concerned in particular about counterfeit prescription painkillers that look like Percocet and OxyContin, but contain fentanyl," it reads.

In 2017, the most recent year for which the CDC has data, over 28,000 deaths in the United States were attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

The coroner's office said Weiner's official cause of death was "fentanyl toxicity."

"While I did not have the pleasure of knowing Eitan, I have been learning about him through his friends and family, who say he was full of love, joy, wit, curiosity and loyalty as a son, brother and friend," Brubaker-Cole wrote in a statement shortly after Weiner's death. "Inspiring yet humble, he was incredibly well read and deeply interested in history, politics and current events."

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd