This resource page provides information to help navigate the current wave of the overdose crisis — with tools rather than fear. Our goal is to save lives, prevent overdose, and effectively respond to overdoses when they occur.
What is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is an opioid drug that acts upon the opioid receptors in the brain. A few things that can be important to know include the facts that:
- Fentanyl is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and produces more immediate yet shorter lasting effects.
- When opioid receptors are activated in our nervous system, our breathing slows.
With opioids as intense as fentanyl, it doesn’t often take much to depress our breathing to dangerously low rates or to stop our breathing entirely – what we call an opioid overdose.
When we talk about fentanyl, we can be referring to:
- Pharmaceutical fentanyl that has been prescribed safely and effectively for severe pain for over 50 years, and is among the most commonly used pain management drugs during childbirth;
- Illicitly manufactured synthetic opioids made and sold outside of the controls and safety of the pharmaceutical market – often referred to as street drugs or illegal drugs. These can be similar to pharmaceutical fentanyl, but vary in many ways due to the unregulated nature of the illicit market where ensuring quality, dosage, and safety are more difficult.
The most reliable way to distinguish between a prescription and an illicitly manufactured drug is to find the source. Even if it’s a pill, if you can’t guarantee it came from a pharmacy, caution is critical.
What Does The Data Tell Us?
Currently, about 70% of overdose deaths each year involve a synthetic opioid.
Drug overdose death rates are highest for adults between the ages of 35 and 44 years old, with the 24-34 year old age group following closely behind. In addition to these deaths, there are approximately 17,000 prescription opioid-related deaths and 9,000 heroin related overdose deaths annually.
In today’s drug market, it’s important to understand that most overdoses involve a mixture of drugs, often taken together within what appears to be a single product like a pill or powder.
It can be helpful to zoom out to the larger scale of opioid use and overdose impact to understand how we can help. Overall, approximately 8.9 million Americans misuse opioids each year. Of that 8.9 million, about 1 million self-report having used fentanyl. However, this is considered to likely be a significant underestimation due to individuals often not being aware of if/when fentanyl is in their drugs.
As fentanyl has largely saturated the drug market, all of these influences have now contributed to a situation where individuals don’t know about fentanyl, can’t tell which drugs do or don’t have fentanyl, or have a lack of alternatives that don’t contain fentanyl at all.
As a result, over 70% of the more than 100,000 overdose deaths annually in the United States involve a synthetic opioid — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Have a Safety Plan
Having a safety plan can help reverse the silence on the addiction epidemic. As a harm reduction tool, SAFE Project’s downloadable Safety Plan with tips can help individuals who use drugs prevent overdose. Display your safety plan where it is easily seen or accessible and give your safety plan to people you trust will use it.
Dispose of Unused Medication
The number of lives we’re losing and the economic impact of this crisis, and the fact that the supply is maliciously coming from entities in other nations, speaks to this as a national security crisis rather than simply a public health crisis. The efforts of the Commission and this report make clear that a solution will require far more concerted resources and action.”
Additional SAFE Project Resources
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ResourceLessons Learned: The Truth About Harm Reduction
Harm reduction treats individuals with substance use disorders with dignity and respect using a social justice and health equity lens. -
ResourceHow to Talk and Listen to Your Teen
When talking and listening to your teen about addiction, it's important to be present every step of the way. -
PageWhat is Naloxone? What should I do if I witness an overdose?
Naloxone (also known as Narcan®) is a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose. -
