This medication is usually used as needed according to directions. Talk to your doctor about eating grapefruit and drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication. This medication should not be prescribed for other uses; ask your doctor or pharmacist for more information.
"What has happened with the 20- to 29-year-olds? They beat fentanyl," said Epstein, who works with a national drug awareness group focused on young people called Song for Charlie. This stunning drop in drug deaths among people in the U.S. is being tracked in data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. "What we're seeing is a massive reduction in fatal overdose risk, among Gen Z in particular," said Nabarun Dasgupta, an addiction researcher at the University of North Carolina. As an elevated train rumbled overhead, Carlyle described turning to fentanyl, xylazine and other increasingly toxic street drugs. "I use fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, yeah, all of it," Carlyle said, speaking to NPR on the streets of Kensington, a working class neighborhood in Philadelphia where dealers sell drugs openly.
Combat Medicine
“The small seizures that have been conducted at the northern border have mostly to do with US citizens buying fentanyl in Canada for personal consumption and then smuggling it themselves.” “We don’t get any significant amount of fentanyl from Canada,” Felbab-Brown said. Just a couple dozen pounds of fentanyl were seized along the northern US border with Canada last year, CBP data shows, and experts say that the illicit networks in Canada are almost entirely separate from those in the US. Nearly 22,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at US borders during the 2024 fiscal year, according to data from the US Customs and Border Protection.
More In: The Opioid Epidemic: America’s Deadliest Drug Overdose Crisis
A doctor may also choose to prescribe naltrexone, which stops the effect fentanyl has on the body. This can result in misuse if someone removes the gel contents from discarded patches. Misuse of fentanyl includes taking it orally, smoking it, snorting it, or injecting it. Healthcare professionals will typically monitor people in this age group. Fentanyl can continue to be effective after removing the patch, as the skin has already absorbed the drug. For continuous delivery, a transdermal patch can slowly deliver fentanyl through the skin and into the bloodstream for up to 72 hours.
How Does Fentanyl Make People Feel?
They found about 70,000 pills in the appearance of oxycodone and more than 25,000 in the appearance of Xanax. Several large quantities of illicitly produced fentanyl have been seized by U.S. law enforcement agencies. This regulatory gap enables brokers to evade detection, seamlessly navigating between the legal chemical trade and the illicit drug market to acquire the necessary precursors. Many of the compounds used to manufacture fentanyl have legitimate industrial applications, classifying them as dual-use chemicals.
Cal Epstein (right) died from a fentanyl overdose in 2020 when he was 18. By last year, that number had plummeted to roughly 16,690 fatal overdoses, according to provisional CDC data. Escambia Sheriff Chip Simmons said during the press conference that fentanyl is the most dangerous and deadly drug he's encountered in his 41 years in law enforcement, saying the drug is high on the ECSO's priority list. According to Gov. Ron DeSantis' office, the SAFE grant program, as of Sept. 2, 2025, has contributed to over 2,000 arrests statewide and the confiscation of 485 pounds of fentanyl — enough to kill almost 110 million people. "I think the Fentanyl crisis is an inflection point in our national conversation about drugs," Ternan explains.
Storage And Disposal
Fentanyl is a powerful opioid pain medication that is often prescribed to patients with severe pain, such as those with cancer. The interruption of OD2A funding also follows passage earlier this month of President Trump's spending plan that includes deep cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program that funds most alcohol and drug addiction treatment in the U.S. "The drug supply is always changing. If public health officials don't know what's in the drugs, they can't warn the public." In August 2023, at the peak of the fentanyl crisis, the 12-month report found more than 114,000 fatal overdoses. Most experts believe that bipartisan effort contributed to a dramatic decline in overdose deaths that began in 2023. Without the promise of new funding, many public health departments grappling with the deadly opioid-fentanyl crisis say they've already paused new spending.
Russian Spetsnaz security forces are suspected to have used a fentanyl analogue, or derivative (suspected to be carfentanil and remifentanil), to rapidly incapacitate people in the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002. The use of fentanyl in execution caused concern among death penalty experts because it was part of a previously untested drug cocktail. The other drugs included diazepam as a tranquilizer, cisatracurium besylate as a muscle relaxant, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. The fentanyl patch is one of a few medications that may be especially harmful, and in some cases fatal, with just one dose, if misused by a child. Therefore, the lack of arms controls in the U.S. has directly contributed to the U.S. opioid overdose crisis. Recent investigations and convictions of members of the Sinaloa drug cartel by federal agencies made a clear connection between illegal arms trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico and the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S.
Carlyle's teens and early 20s have been wracked by severe drug use, but the fact that he's still alive means he's part of a hopeful new national trend. "It is a weapon of mass destruction. The amount of people it can kill is unreal." "This product has come in and infested our state, and it is killing people left and right in our state," Glass said. FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass also attended the press conference and said that Florida's State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication (SAFE) grant instituted in 2023 provided additional resources that helped the agency investigate the alleged drug ring and arrest the suspects. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 2 milligrams of fentanyl are considered a lethal dose. As part of the arrests, investigators seized over 14 pounds of fentanyl, 4 pounds of xylazine, 58 pounds of methamphetamine, 35 pounds of marijuana, 2 pounds of cocaine, 30 firearms, over $60,000 and five vehicles.
National Resources
People may consider talking with a therapist for support with their medication use if medication is part of their treatment. Over time, however, the brain adapts to fentanyl, making it difficult for someone to experience positive emotions without the drug. Fentanyl affects people differently, depending on an individual’s size and overall health condition. If a person is hospitalized or undergoing surgery, a healthcare professional may administer fentanyl as an injection called Sublimaze. As a prescription, fentanyl is available under the brand name Actiq, which is a throat lozenge, or Duragesic, a patch placed on the skin. Fentanyl is a Schedule II prescription narcotic analgesic that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more than heroin.
Side Effects
Whereas opioids like codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and hydromorphone are synthesized by simple modifications of morphine, fentanyl, and its relatives are synthesized by modifications of meperidine. Public health advisories to prevent fentanyl misuse and fatal overdose have been issued by the U.S. According to a 2023 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the increased numbers of deaths are not related to an increased number of users but to the lethal effects of fentanyl itself. In 2023, overdose deaths in the U.S. and Canada again reached record numbers. Death from fentanyl overdose continues to be a public health issue of national concern in Canada since September 2015.
- Then last year, federal data revealed a stunning decline, with 40% fewer teens experiencing fatal overdoses.
- Smoking is now the primary route of use among drug overdose deaths in Oregon.
- Prescribed fentanyl is safe when taken as directed.
- If you do not have a take-back program nearby or one that you can access promptly, then flush the fentanyl down the toilet so that others will not take it.
- Kansas is one of 49 states that face funding delays for a key federal grant program used in the fight against fentanyl overdoses.
Fentanyl addiction is one of the leading causes of overdose in the US. “Finally treating this like a public health condition after so many years of effort and attention may be starting to pay off,” Dr. Sarah Wakeman, senior medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham, told CNN in September. Drug samples analyzed by the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education also showed a slight downward trend in the average purity of fentanyl powder, but it was a relatively small dip in a highly variable drug supply. In November, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said it was finding lethal doses of fentanyl in fewer pills than it did a year earlier. Although law enforcement seizures of illicit fentanyl have surged in recent years, there’s also some evidence that the drug supply is changing again. Most of the precursor ingredients “are pretty basic chemicals with wide-scale applications, so hiding the shipments is not very complicated,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who has led various initiatives centered on the opioid epidemic and global drug policy.
But many experts, activists and front-line healthcare workers say there's more hope on the streets, too. "I wish I had the answer to that. I know all of us fighting addiction right now wish we had the answer," he said. "There's fewer people initiating with these substances. That should work in our favor," he told NPR. Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher at Stanford University, credits this apparent behavioral shift with helping save lives. Some teens and 20-somethings are seeing far fewer deaths, but he identified one cluster born between 2005 and 2011 who actually saw a slight uptick in deaths over the past two years. In fact, it was a counterfeit pill containing a deadly dose of fentanyl.
They can check for fentanyl in different kinds of drugs and pills. In many cases, people do not know that their drugs are tainted with fentanyl.14 Unless drugs are tested, it is impossible to tell if they have been mixed with fentanyl.15 Like other opioids, fentanyl can ease pain and make a person feel happy and relaxed.
He tried to purchase a prescription-grade pill from a dealer on social media. According to the family, it's not clear why he decided to take an opioid pill. To understand the significance of this promising trend, it's important to recall the terror and devastation wrought by fentanyl among families and communities in the U.S. The lifesaving shift is welcome news for parents like Jon Epstein, who lost his son Cal to fentanyl in 2020. "Ages 20 to 29 lowered the risk by 47%, cut it right in half."
Fentanyl is a potent opioid that offers pain relief to those who live with severe acute or chronic pain conditions. A person taking prescribed fentanyl can experience dependence, meaning they have withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the drug. Sometimes, individuals mix it with other drugs because of its potency. The treatment for overdose is usually naloxone.
Colorado Rockies Promote Warren Schaeffer To Full-time Manager
Do not change to another form of fentanyl eg injection, skin patch, dissolving film, or “lollipop” device. Having a high temperature can increase the amount of drug you absorb through your skin. MISUSE OF NARCOTIC MEDICINE CAN CAUSE ADDICTION, OVERDOSE, OR DEATH, especially in a child or other person using the medicine without a prescription.
Kalafatas founded the nonprofit Project 1 Life with a mission to educate adolescents and foster youth-led conversations about fentanyl, the deadly and frighteningly ubiquitous opioid found in so many counterfeit pills. Fentanyl was involved in the vast majority of all teen overdose deaths – 84% – in 2021, and the problem has been growing. LAUSD is one of the largest districts to stock naloxone, a medicine that reverses opioid overdoses, throughout its schools. But the pills they took were counterfeits – they hadn't come from a pharmacy and it turned out they contained fentanyl, a potent, often deadly, synthetic opioid.
