All Americans across the U.S., coast to coast, and every community in between have been harmed by fentanyl. On May 7, we honor the Americans whose lives we lost and call upon all Americans to raise public awareness with National Fentanyl Awareness Day.
Tuesday, students from Ms. Anderson's Criminal Justice I and Mrs. Bird's Pharmacy Tech I paired up to raise awareness on the dangers of fentanyl with high school students. Students interacted with resources given and played games to retain the knowledge.
Several of the students were in disbelief that it takes only 2 mg of fentanyl (a few grains of salt) to cause an overdose. While others enjoyed interacting with their peers on comments of how they would respond to people trying to give them pills that didn't come from a traditional pharmacy.
There are two types of fentanyl. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is prescribed and obtained from a licensed physician or pharmacy. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) is made and distributed through illegal drug markets with no quality control.
You cannot see, taste or smell fentanyl in an IMF, as it is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper to make, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous. These counterfeit pills are made to look like real prescription medications you get from the pharmacy. They have the same size, coloring, stamps, and packaging much of the time.
These fake pills may contain more or less of the active ingredient, harmful ingredients, or the wrong medication altogether. They are made to look like prescription opioids such as Oxycontin, Percocet, hydrocodone, and alprazolam, or stimulants like amphetamines.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Due to that potency, one pill or even half of a single pill could be lethal.
There were 109,360 overdose deaths in 2022 fueled by fentanyl. It was discovered that seven out of every 10 fake pills contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. Between 2018 and 2021, youth deaths for those age 14-18 by fentanyl grew by 356%.
"Programs like this allow us to better educate our school community on the dangers of Fentanyl," PCPS Superintendent Mr. Rob Graham said. "I am grateful for those who provided this opportunity to our students and am proud of the way they engaged with the presenters during the program."
There was lots of good feedback from this PSA to the students. The main goal for the event was to ensure that students learned and helped get the word out that, "It only takes a little to lose a lot!" #end overdose NRV