Fentanyl is 100X More Addictive Than Heroin
Fentanyl Distribution
The illegally made fentanyl most often associated with poisoning and overdoses comes from China and is distributed to Mexican drug cartels. The drug cartels use it as an additive to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other illicit drugs, but even more disturbingly, it is used to make counterfeit prescription pills that look almost identical to real prescription opioids such as Xanax, Oxycodone, or Percocet.
The Mexican labs where these drugs are made do not have quality controls in place to consistently measure the amount of fentanyl being added. This means there is no way to know if each pill is safe or not. With such small amounts of fentanyl being so deadly just one pill can kill. Today, now more than ever, criminal drug networks are mass-producing these fake pills and falsely marketing them as legitimate prescription pills to deceive the American public. These counterfeit pills have been identified in all 50 states.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Government has neglected the southern U.S. border security and these drugs are making their way into our kids’ hands creating a national epidemic.
Meet Your Neighborhood Drug Dealer
You might think these deadly illegal drugs wouldn’t be available in your local suburban neighborhood but unfortunately, they are widely available. In fact, with the evolution of social media drug dealers are now using apps like Snapchat, Tik-Tok, and Instagram to prospect for new customers.
Dealers are now using the apps to place advertisements to sell these deadly pills and have even created emojis to connect with kids on social media to avoid being caught by law enforcement.
Learn more about how at dea.gov
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What is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid most commonly found in counterfeit pills, is the primary driver of the alarming increase in overdose deaths.
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more addictive than heroin. Synthetic opioids, containing fentanyl, are now the most common drugs involved in drug overdose deaths in the United States.
Drug traffickers often mix fentanyl into other drugs because it is cheap to manufacture, extremely addictive and a small amount goes a long way. Because fentanyl is often mixed into other substances, many individuals consume it without meaning to, which can cause accidental overdoses or deaths.
Fentanyl is often added to:
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Powders such as cocaine, crystal meth, and heroin
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Marijuana, and ecstasy tablets
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Illegally pressed pills meant to look like prescription medications such as; Xanax, Oxycodone, Percocet, and Adderall
Experts consider 2 mg of fentanyl to be lethal, but many counterfeit pills contain up to 5 mg (more than twice the lethal dose). This amount is incredibly small. Check out the image to the side for scale to see what 2 mg of fentanyl looks like.
Important: Any pill or drug sold on the internet, on the streets, or by a person you know could contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
Only 2 Milligrams is Considered a Lethal Dose
Fentanyl Poisoning
Accidental drug poisoning is the number one cause of death in America today for adults ages 18 to 45. Many of these poisonings are being labeled as overdoses, when in fact many of these deaths happen to people who are experimenting with opioids or have been addicted to prescribed opioids, then turn to the black market because they can no longer receive the prescribed product. According to the CDC, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are the most common drugs used in overdose deaths. Even in the smallest doses, it is extremely deadly and very hard to detect as the user can’t see, taste, or smell it.
Please note: The term “poisoning” and “overdose” are both used by the CDC, medical examiners, and law enforcement professionals to describe drug-related deaths. So, from a governmental reporting standpoint, fentanyl deaths are indeed called both “poisonings” and/or “overdoses”. However, these terms are not always used consistently between organizations, making the reporting of “poisonings” and “overdoses” complicated and sometimes inaccurate.
We believe the language used to describe fentanyl drug deaths should be updated to accommodate recent developments brought on by the emergence of fentapills. The word fentapill is commonly used to describe a range of black-market pills that contain fentanyl. An overdose occurs when a person ingests too much of a known substance, resulting in either illness or death. Fentapill deaths are different. The consumer is being deceived. Many people ingest a fentapill believing they are taking legitimate prescription medication such as Oxycodone or Percocet. They typically ingest the recommended dose of their intended drug - a single pill - and die from fentanyl toxicity. Because of the deception, such a death is and should be classified most accurately as fentanyl poisoning.
Updating the language is necessary to address the problem appropriately. The solutions we have historically applied to the opioid “overdose” crisis do not apply across the board in the age of fentanyl and fake pills.
The Deadly Facts
Counterfeit Pills Laced with the Highly Potent Fentanyl Accounted for 77% of TEEN OVERDOSES in 2021
Source - Journal of American Medical Association
DEA Laboratory Testing Reveals that 6 out of 10 Fentanyl-Laced Fake Prescription Pills Now Contain a Potentially Lethal Dose of Fentanyl
Source - dea.gov/onepill
Fentanyl Poisoning Deaths in the US Remain at Record Levels. Deaths Involving Fake Pills Increased by 80% Over the Past 2 Years.
Source - dea.gov/onepill
DEA Seized Enough Fentanyl to Kill Every American in 2022
Source - dea.gov/onepill
The One Pill Killed campaign was created to raise awareness about the fentanyl epidemic that’s impacting so many families in our country. We are working with national and local media and TV networks requesting airtime to broadcast our public service announcement.
We can increase awareness by purchasing more airtime to run our public service announcements. You can help support this important cause by making a donation to the House of Giving. House of Giving is a 501(c3) non-profit organization started in 2001 by Michael R. Ellison, the grandfather of Chase Michael Ellison.
We are committed to taking the crucial step of raising national awareness of the dangers of counterfeit prescription drugs containing fentanyl.
For more information about House of Giving. please email us at info@houseofgiving.org
With a Donation of Just $5, You Can Save Lives by Bringing Awareness to 1000 Households.