Fentanyl
Synthetic Opioids are the cause of increasing opioid overdose deaths. Significantly stronger in concentration and often hidden from consumers, Fentanyl has a rapidly growing street presence in Sacramento. Help educate yourself and your community through this page’s resources, and share accurate Fentanyl knowledge to protect others from opioid overdose deaths.
Sacramento Fentanyl Awareness Campaign
Deceptive drugs made of fentanyl are killing young people across America at an alarming rate. Fentanyl is infiltrating our communities through counterfeit pills, cocaine and any other street drug you can name. Anonymously sold through social media and delivered within minutes. Learn more before it kills you or someone you love, see attached fentanyl documentary, Dead on Arrival. (Documentary en Español).
With an increase in Fentanyl use, overdoses in Sacramento and the United States are on the rise. See our Gone Too Soon Memorial Project to honor loved ones we have lost.
Is Fentanyl Really That Harmful?
Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than Morphine and 50 times stronger than Heroin. A lethal dose of Fentanyl is just .002 grams – several lethal doses could fit on Abraham Lincoln’s head on a penny. Users and experimenters of Opioids obtained on the street should be particularly cautious, as the overwhelming majority of these drugs are disguised to look like legitimately produced pills, when in fact they were produced in dangerously unregulated settings by rogue chemists and drug cartels. Fentanyl is often cut into other drugs, so caution must be practiced no matter the substance.
This graph shows the total number of drug overdose deaths in the United States from 1999 to 2021.The data shows that overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids excluding methadone have increased 97-fold. Overdose deaths involving psychostimulants (primarily methamphetamine) with abuse potential have increased 59-fold. Overdose deaths involving cocaine have increased 6.4-fold. And overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have increased 4.9 -fold. Source: National Vital Statistics System Mortality File
This graph from the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows deaths from prescription opioids are stabilizing but deaths from use of at synthetic opioids like Fentanyl is rising.
15 Second Fentanyl PSA
30 Second PS Fentanyl PSA
Resources
Fentanyl Drug Facts, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Fentanyl Resources, National Harm Reduction Coalition
Fentanyl, DEA
Healthline: California’s Fentanyl Problem Is Getting Worse
Fentanyl Awareness Day Speaker Series 2023
On May 9, 2023, National Fentanyl Awareness Day presented a series of free, virtual webinars with issue-area experts on an array of topics related to the illicit fentanyl crisis. Recordings of all sessions are available below.