"Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered" said administrator Anne Milgram. "Fentanyl is everywhere from large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison. We must take every opportunity to spread the word to prevent fentanyl- related overdose death and poisonings from claiming scores of American lives everyday." according to the DEA.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
We are in the midst of a national emergency. Fentanyl is the number one cause of death for Americans aged 18-45.
In 2021 we lost more than 107,000 Americans due to overdoses, 71,000 of those deaths were due to fentanyl according to the CDC. A majority of those people did not ask for fentanyl.
Fentanyl is very cheap and highly addictive so drug dealers are using it in everything. People in every state are being poisoned thinking they are taking Xanax, Adderall, Oxy, Cocaine, Heroin etc.
It only takes the equivalent of two grains of sand worth of fentanyl to be lethal. There is no oversight or quality control so these drugs often contain lethal amounts of fentanyl with none of the promised drug. Receiving Jake's death certificate confirmed there was enough fentanyl to kill four 200 pound adults in that single pill.
According to the DEA, from May 23 through September 28, 2022, they seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and about 980 pounds of fentanyl powder. That is more than 36 million lethal doses.
Fake pills are very easy to purchase and being advertised as the real thing. You can take a pill and have no idea if it contains fentanyl. You can take a pill and know it contains fentanyl but not have any idea if it contains a lethal amount.
Harm reduction and overdose prevention
Carry Narcan. Narcan is a potentially life saving medicine. It can reverse an opioid overdose in minutes. Talk to your doctor or local pharmacist about getting prescribed Narcan. There are also non profits who will send this to you for free.
Don't rely on a past experience with drugs. Knowing who your drugs come from doesn't mean they are safe. Even if you have done a drug before does not mean that this exact batch is safe.
Never use drugs alone. Make sure whoever you are with is aware you have taken drugs in case they need to call for help or use Narcan.
Purchase fentanyl test strips. Fentanyl strips are easy to you but the only way to be sure a drug does not contain fentanyl is to buy from a local pharmacy with a prescription. If you are testing a pill for fentanyl you have to test the whole powder, you cant take a little piece of the pill and crush it. You must smash the entire pill and take a different way. If not, there could be a clump of fentanyl in the part of the pill you didn't test.
Sources:
CDC. “Drug Overdose Deaths in the U.S. Top 100,000 Annually.” Www.cdc.gov, 17 Nov. 2021, www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm.
CDC. “Fentanyl Test Strips: A Harm Reduction Strategy.” Www.cdc.gov, 30 Sept. 2022, www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/fentanyl-test-strips.html.
DEA. "Fentanyl Awareness."Drug Enforcement Agency, 29 April, 2022, https://www.dea.gov/fentanylawareness Accessed 2 November, 2022.
United States Drug Enforcement Administration. “Fentanyl.” Dea.gov, 2000, www.dea.gov/factsheets/fentanyl.
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