With Fentanyl overdoses on the rise, there are a few things people need to understand.
What exactly fentanyl is, how it’s affecting people, how to know if someone is overdosing, and how to help that person.
According to the Centers for Disease Control Fentanyl is an opioid that is 100 times more potent than morphine and produces a similar effect as heroin. Typically, it’s prescribed by an authorized official or doctor for illnesses such as cancer and post-surgery.
Although it is prescribed by doctors, that is only one kind of fentanyl. There are two types of fentanyl, pharmaceutical fentanyl and illegally made fentanyl, or (IMF) for short.
IMF is added to other drugs to increase their potency of them resulting in a more intense high. Most of the United States’ illegal fentanyl is imported anonymously from China.
There are multiple ways that people intake fentanyl. Examples of this are inhaling it, smoking it, swallowing the tablet, in patches, and mixing it with other drugs.
The IMF is a rapidly growing concern here in the US. The CDC reports that there are over 150 synthetic opioid deaths each day. The government program Get Smart About Drugs (GSAD) reports that for Americans aged 18-45, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) states that only 2 milligrams of fentanyl is lethal. That is approximately the size of Lincoln’s nose to chin on a penny.
Each year there has been a gradual increase in the number of deaths related to fentanyl. According to statistics from UC San Francisco in 2021 around 6,000 people overdosed on fentanyl in California alone, some of which were children.
With the more and more deaths caused by synthetic opioids, we must know what a drug overdose looks like and how we can help without putting up a risk for our own safety.
The DEA says to look out for these warning signs of overdose. Small shrunken pupils, falling asleep or losing consciousness, slowness, weakness, no breathing, choking, limp body, cold sweaty skin, and skin discoloration mainly in the lips or nail beds.
Now that we know what to look out for we need to know how we can help which can be tricky sometimes especially since most overdoses are unexpected.
A useful tool for situations like these is naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan. When someone is overdosing on fentanyl you don’t want to give them mouth to mouth as that opens up an opportunity for you to overdose. Instead, inject the Narcan into their nose and wait 2 minutes. If they don’t respond to the first one, Administer a Second Dose. Another important step to never forget is to call emergency services for help.
Now that we know what fentanyl is and what to do in the situation that someone is overdosing we are educated on what to do in times of crisis which unfortunately is the reality we live in today.