The United States is marking May 9 as National Fentanyl Awareness Day, a highly addictive synthetic drug that is already the leading cause of death among the over-50s.
The effects of opiate, 50 times more potent than heroin, can be seen on the streets of two of the nation’s wealthiest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where some neighborhoods have been turned into open-air consumption zones.
“Most of what used to be the heroin business is now fentanyl,” Dean Shold, co-founder of the nonprofit FentCheck, told Lusa. “It’s become more economical for the cartels because they can produce fentanyl more easily than poppies for heroin.”
FentCheck mainly operates in San Francisco and Oakland in Northern California to prevent accidental overdoses. The organization distributes free tests to screen for contamination of recreational drugs with the powerful opiate, making them available in bars, restaurants and even bookstores and libraries.
“Fentanyl is very potent. Two milligrams can kill a human being,” Shold stressed. FentCheck created the program in the image of what happened in the 1980s during the HIV epidemic, when containers of condoms in bars and restaurants multiplied. This time the containers contain free tests, which give the results within two minutes.
“This is aimed at people who might be using cocaine or MDMA at a party, trying drugs they’re not used to, from suppliers they wouldn’t normally buy from,” he explained. “They are the most vulnerable users because they have no tolerance to opiates.”
These accidental overdoses happen when users consume drugs laced with fentanyl, now known as “synthetic heroin,” which enters the United States primarily through the Mexican border.
The priority target is the 30-34 age group, where more overdoses have been recorded, but Dean Shold explains that there is a growing risk among teens, who use Generation Z’s favorite social network, TikTok, to find drug dealers several illegal substances.
“We see teens ordering pills on TikTok. That’s pretty scary,” said Dean Shold. The tests offered by FentCheck serve to test whether these and other illegal substances are contaminated, without any incriminating element.
“We don’t want to judge. Many parents just say they don’t use drugs, and that doesn’t work,” said the official. “We don’t believe the only answer is abstinence.”
Shold indicated that the proof of this is the failure of recent decades, when all strategies to reduce drug use have failed.
But the use of tests has a proven preventive effect, which the organization explains by comparing the number of overdoses in its areas of work, published by the California Department of Public Health.
“We need to take care of these resources because just saying ‘don’t do drugs’ hasn’t worked,” said Shold, who took it for granted that “we lost the war on drugs.”
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is now the number one cause of death among Americans under the age of 50. In 2021, 106 thousand people died of an overdose, of which more than 70 thousand were victims of fentanyl.
With thousands of addicts, accidental overdoses and more and more teens at risk, addressing this crisis has become a priority in many states. In March, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a “strategic plan” with $96.5 million for the problem.
“Every day in our country, more than 150 people die from overdoses and poisonings related to synthetic opiates such as fentanyl,” Newsom said when presenting the plan.
“Our comprehensive approach will expand enforcement efforts to fend off the transnational criminal organizations smuggling this toxin into our communities,” he continued, “while prioritizing harm reduction strategies to reduce overdoses and compassionately help those struggling with addiction “.
FentCheck is just one of many non-governmental and non-profit organizations dedicated to harm reduction in the field.
By 2022 alone, it has distributed 50,000 tests and has been working to reach out to consumers and established employees, training them in the use of Narcan, an antidote that reverses overdoses.
“We always supplement the containers with tests and that gives us the opportunity to talk to the bartenders, to the customers, and sometimes refer them to MAT programs [medication-assisted treatment]Shold explains.
The organization is beginning to roll out trials in New York and plans to dramatically expand its coverage in Los Angeles, where it is now limited to West Hollywood.
Los Angeles has seen the situation escalate, with fentanyl deaths in the county increasing 14-fold over the past five years.
At the University of Southern California (USC), the nonprofit organization TACO (Team Awareness Combatting Operation) teaches students how to use the antidote Narcan, test the drugs, and understand the potential effects.
Awareness of the risks became more urgent when a 15-year-old girl was found dead at Hollywood’s Bernstein High School last September after consuming percocet (a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen) laced with fentanyl.
Even if the outcome isn’t tragic, the person could accidentally become addicted, explains Dean Shold.
“Any opiate can become addictive in about three days,” he stressed. “We believe that by encouraging drug testing and non-use if they are on fentanyl, we are preventing more people from becoming addicted to opiates.”
The person in charge is optimistic about the progress of some measures, such as the dissemination of tests and the decriminalization of some drugs, but he is aware of the seriousness of the situation.
“We’re entering an alley where it’s hard to get out”.
Source: DN
