Did you know that for Americans age 18-45, the leading cause of death currently is fentanyl overdose.
This opioid drug is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
August 21st will now officially annually be National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day.
Recently I took a class through Fallbrook Regional Health (they have several classes regularly open and often free to the community) that taught us a lot about this, and I will share a few highlights.
First, my biggest question was, why are people doing something that can kill them?
Here are my Top 3 Things to Know:
1. Most people believe that they are getting a different drug/medication, and not thinking it is laced with fentanyl.
Often people are going and trying to buy drugs/medications like xanax, adderall, percocet, oxycontin, or other “street drugs” like ecstasy, meth, cocaine, etc.
2. The fake/counterfeit pills often look identical to the pharmaceutical made ones!
3. Social media is the new “street” where Snapchat and others are places where drug dealers and seeing out people to sell to!
Emojis can be used to communicate the transaction, see the DEA decoded, see sources below for more info.
Drug Dealers make poor pharmacies, if the goal is to sell drugs, why are they killing their customers, right?
-
They are making these concoctions of various chemicals if often less than ideal environments, often they aren’t using the same recipe, and/or mixing it up to evenly distribute.
-
Think about a chocolate chip cookie…a good batch of cookies, you’ve mixed it in so every cookie has a similar average of chocolate chips.
-
Now imagine that chocolate chip represents a certain amount of fentanyl.
-
If you have someone “addicted”, it may be that we need to focus on not telling them you can’t have “cookies” anymore, but say, ok how can we reduce your harm.
For more info on the Choc Chip Cookie analogy and Testing for Fentanyl Strips:
https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl/fentanyl-test-strips.html
A life can be saved potentially with an overdose antidote.
-
Short term overdose reversal with Narcan (brand) or Naloxone (generic)
-
Symptoms of an overdose include being unresponsive, or sleepy, small pupils, vomiting, pale, grey lips, clammy skin, slow breathing
Find out ways to get the nasal spray Narcan for free: https://nextdistro.org/california
Watch: Video of UC Davis ER doc: https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/fentanyl-overdose-facts-signs-and-how-you-can-help-save-a-life/2023/01
Sources:
https://www.fallbrookhealth.org/
https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2021-12/Emoji%20Decoded.pdf
Additional Resources:
