Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. And fentanyl has very quickly made it’s way into every street drug available and counterfeit pills made to look just like prescription. A piece of fentanyl the size of a grain of sugar can kill.
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Accidental fentanyl poisoning happens when someone takes a drug laced with it and becomes unresponsive - breathing slows and eventually stops.
79% of teens say stress and anxiety are common reasons to misuse prescription medicine, 73% report they hadn’t heard of the risk of fentanyl being added to counterfeit pills.
(According to research by Morning Consult commissioned by Snap Inc. in July 2021)
Rainbow Fentanyl
Rainbow fentanyl is designed to appeal to children. Making it's way all over the US, they are colorful pills that often look like sweet tarts, creating the allusion that they are fun and harmless. However, they are just as dangerous. In a recent 15-week enforcement operation, the New York DEA seized half a million lethal rainbow fentanyl pills - that is the equivalent of 500,000 lethal doses of fentanyl. There has been cases all over the country where kids as young as elementary school have been poisoned from these pills thinking they are candy.
Since fentanyl is cheap and easy to make, it is often added to other drugs such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine and oxycotin to make the drug more potent, therefore more addictive. If someone takes fentanyl and they are lucky enough to survive, they will likely become addicted, making the dealer more money.
In pills, fentanyl is a cheap alternative to other drugs put in the pill. So labs will instead put a small amount of fentanyl, in the pill, and fill the rest up with filler. This does the same thing, and makes the pills more potent and addicting. These counterfeit pills are made to look identical to the real ones. You can never tell which has fentanyl by looking at it. the fentanyl is also not evenly distributed inside the pill, so taking half of one, will not secure your chances of taking a smaller, , safer, less potent dose.
Fentanyl is invisible to the eye, and can cause an overdose at just 2-3 milligrams, leading to numerous deaths of first-time triers/buyers and casual users.
The Ad Council in Parnership with YouTube & Snap
This content was captured at Holyoke High School in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Taking over the school for the day, former drug dealers stepped in as teachers – or “substitute dealers” – to educate students about the fentanyl crisis.
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For more information about this PSA and the partnership, read the press release.