The leading cause of death amongst Americans ages 18-45 is the deadly drug fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Because of the Biden administration’s backwards priorities, a large percentage of Americans have never even heard of the drug.

“We are in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever been in in the United States,” said Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver. “In a magical world there would be no drugs, but we live here.”

Arizona’s abc15 reports “In the year ending in April 2021, fentanyl claimed the lives of 40,010 Americans ages 18-45. That’s more than car accidents (22,442), suicide (21,678), COVID (21,335), and cancer (17,114).”

Awareness of fentanyl really only began roughly six years ago. It was developed in 1959 “primarily used as an anesthetic and pain reliever for medical purposes without the side effect of nausea. It is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin” reports abc15.

The synthetic drug became very popular and migrated its way onto the drug scene in 2015 for a few reasons. It is cheaper to produce than most illicit drugs such as heroin which requires cultivation, and because of its potency, only a small amount is necessary to get high.

As a result, fentanyl became a cheap “cut” that has been found in nearly every drug supply in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse announced that last year, 75% of cocaine overdose deaths were mixed-use with fentanyl as were 50% of methamphetamine overdose deaths.

Drugs cut with fentanyl has caused so many overdoses that Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse says people need to be educated  on “how to use that drug in ways that is going to minimize the risk…And that includes, for example, never taking drugs alone. Why? Because if take these drugs alone and you overdose no one can give you the Naloxone.”

Both Raville and Dr. Volkow agree “solving the overdose issue is different from addressing the drug use issue. Both women agree improving things like education about contaminated drugs, addiction help, Naloxone access, and drug testing strip access are all vital.”