Families hurt by fentanyl want COVID-level drive

Grieving families and advocates say there is an alarming mismatch between the immediate and severe threat posed by fentanyl and the level of awareness across America, especially among young people who do not consume mainstream media.

They want the type of flood-the-zone coverage that COVID-19 received at the height of the pandemic, and they wish celebrities with millions of social media followers would step up to warn young people about fake pills and other fentanyl-laced drugs that can kill with a single dose.

“For 2½ years, we knew we were supposed to stay 6 feet away from each other and wear a damn mask and make sure you get your vaccines and all that,” said Steven Filson, secretary-treasurer of the California nonprofit Victims of Illicit Drugs, whose 29-year-old daughter, Jessica, died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020. “When are we going to start talking about fentanyl? And when are people going to understand fentanyl?”

Song for Charlie, a nonprofit that raises awareness of “fentapills,” said in a recent study that less than half of young Americans ages 13 to 24 (48%) and a little more than a third of teens (36%) are aware that fentanyl is being used to create counterfeit pills, which are major profit drivers for Mexican cartels.

Only 40% of young Americans, including 31% of teens, consider themselves knowledgeable about fentanyl. One in 10 teenagers and 1 in 5 young adults reported using prescription medicine without a doctor’s authorization.

Family members who spoke to The Washington Times said their wish list includes a mandatory curriculum on the dangers of fentanyl in K-12 schools and pop-up warnings about fentanyl when young people use social media platforms.

Although they were happy to hear President Biden raise the issue in his State of the Union address, they want to see sustained results and a plan to rout the Mexican cartels that are feeding the supply of synthetic opioids into American communities.

The stakes are high. Although the rate of drug overdose deaths declined slightly in 2022, the annual death toll of more than 100,000 is far above the toll a decade ago. Roughly 70,000 of the 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021 were tied at least in part to fentanyl.

In September, two students overdosed at a high school in Hollywood, California, and one of them — a 15-year-old girl — died after taking what they thought were Percocet pills.

Authorities warned that fake versions of Adderall, a drug used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could be laced with fentanyl after two Ohio State University students died of overdoses in May.

“It’s frightening. We’ve had moms ask us the question, ‘Is fentanyl still a thing?’ Which is like a punch to the gut,” said Lisa Deane, who founded the Demand Zero nonprofit to fight the overdose crisis after her son Joe died of fentanyl poisoning in 2018. “Kids aren’t as aware as they should be.”

Advocates warn that the drug landscape has changed drastically from the drug-laden days of experimentation in the 1960s or the “skillet” campaign in the 1980s that warned that drugs would gradually fry a brain like an egg. For many, there is no second chance with fentanyl.

“You can’t experiment anymore. They’re putting it in everything, and that one experiment could be your last experiment,” Mr. Filson said. “Fentanyl is a whole new animal. That’s what our society needs to understand.”

Policymakers, doctors and journalists have been talking about the risks of fentanyl since it began flooding the heroin supply in the middle of the last decade. People who spend a lot of time on a subject sometimes overestimate how much the rest of the public knows about it, said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who tracks the opioid crisis.

He said most young people do not know much, if anything, about fentanyl; the synthetic opioid isotonitazene, or “iso”; and xylazine, a veterinary sedative known as “tranq” that is added to opioid drugs and can lead to skin abscesses and amputations.

“There’s too much else to pay attention to,” Mr. Humphreys said. “We know from research that threatening/scolding campaigns do not help, but that doesn’t mean all public information campaigns are a bad idea. Simply telling people facts and where to get information and other forms of help is a good thing.”

Derek Maltz, a former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division, said one of the biggest hurdles in reaching young Americans is that they do not consume the types of media that are likely to raise and debate the fentanyl threat.

“The kids of America are not watching mainstream media, they’re not watching cable news, they’re not reading The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the New York Post. They’re watching video reels on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, right? That’s what they do all day long,” Mr. Maltz said. “We’re not thinking outside the box. People don’t even understand how these kids are operating across America today.”

The Biden administration and social media companies say they are working to plug those gaps.

The DEA has a “Just One Pill Can Kill” campaign featuring YouTube clips, which can be shared on social media, about the dangers of fake pills and fentanyl. It also has an “Operation Prevention” curriculum that is available at no cost for grades three through 12.

“We have a very hardened senior agent in charge in the United States who said to me, not too long ago, that if he had an hour of time right now and he had to choose between putting handcuffs on someone or doing public awareness, right now he would do public awareness. Because still too many Americans do not understand the dangers,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told Congress this month.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said it is expanding a “Real Deal on Fentanyl” campaign from the Ad Council that highlights the role of naloxone in reversing opioid overdoses.

Advocates said they appreciate Mr. Biden’s mention of the issue in his recent speech to Congress but want to see results.

“Our national response requires a united effort that combines the best ideas from harm reduction, law enforcement and drug education in ways that have a lasting impact,” said Ed Ternan, co-founder of Song for Charlie. “I hope the administration will use its renewed focus on the issue to foster innovation and encourage higher levels of cooperation between all parties within the government and the private sector.”

Among social media companies, TikTok said it prohibits the promotion or sale of drugs on its platform, promotes Fentanyl Awareness Day and has a “substance support center” with in-app and online information about substance abuse, its dangers and contact information for U.S. sites where users can find help.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it lets nonprofits use its platforms to run ad campaigns and works to scrub any drug content as lawmakers push social media companies to root out users who sell pills through their platforms.

“We’re working hard to keep this content off Facebook and Instagram while surfacing communities of support that help those struggling with addiction,” a Meta spokesperson said. “While we take down content that is related to drug sales and misuse, we do allow people to talk about their recovery from substance misuse.”

Mr. Filson said he wants social media companies to go further and post warnings immediately after the app opens. Others want states to put fentanyl warnings alongside reading and math as part of the school day.

“If I were queen for the day, I’d make it mandatory curriculum for age 5 and up,” said Ms. Deane, who lives in Madison, Connecticut. “There isn’t anything that kids don’t understand about COVID because it was in our face every single day.”

Some nonprofits are taking their messages about fentanyl and its devastating impacts on families directly to schools willing to host them.

Mr. Filson said middle school and high school students who listen to VOID’s presentation are “riveted” and say the stories make them consider the impact their deaths would have on their parents and families.

Advocates on the frontlines say parents and nonprofits can reach only so many people so they would like pro sports leagues and big-ticket celebrities to get involved. Pop star Olivia Rodrigo promoted COVID-19 vaccines at the White House, and BTS, the K-pop behemoth, paid a similar visit to call attention to anti-Asian hate.

“Right now, the only way kids are hearing about this is [through] grieving families,” Mr. Maltz said.

Advocates said they have had incremental traction with athletes.

Jack Driscoll, an offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles, is from Madison, Connecticut. He raised awareness of fentanyl and Demand Zero with a “My Cause, My Cleats” program in which NFL players use their footwear to highlight critical issues.

“We need more and more and more,” Ms. Deane said. “The only thing kids really respond to is cold, hard facts [and] hearing from someone that either overdosed or hearing from a celebrity or someone they know — that this happened to them and this could happen to you.”