Fentanyl Awareness Day 2025
Imagine fentanyl being the sand on a beach: The equivalent of a few grains of sand can kill you
April 29th, 2025: Fentanyl Awareness Day.
A day of response by fentanyl awareness organizations and families impacted by fentanyl. A day to educate the public about the dangers of illicit fentanyl. A day to bring awareness to one of the most devastating drugs ever to hit our streets. A day to learn more about a synthetic (man-made) opioid that can and will kill you!
As a mother who lost my twenty-two-year-old son unexpectedly to fentanyl poisoning, It is a complicated loss and one I do not wish on anyone else. I am here to provide you with some information to help you understand a little more about this drug and its effect on our world. To put a face to this crisis and to let you know that this drug does not care where you come from, how much you are loved, or who you are, it does not discriminate.
What you may not know about fentanyl:
-Fentanyl was founded in 1959 by Dr. Paul Janssen to be a surgical pain reliever and is sometimes used in anesthesia.
-Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.
-Fentanyl is a man-made opioid.
-Hundreds of thousands of people have died from fentanyl. My son was one of them.
-There are now hundreds of ”fentalogs” - alterations to the drug fentanyl.
-Fentanyl began to enter our illicit drug supply around 2014.
-Fentanyl is odorless.
- 2 mg of fentanyl can kill you. That is just grains of sand.
-Fentanyl is inexpensive to create and is often disguised as other drugs: Xanax, Adderall, Percocets, Oxycodone and more.
-Fentanyl is not as elusive as you may think and it is not a drug that kills “someone else's child”. It is real, it is here and it isn’t going away.
-Counterfeit pills are a PERFECT replication of the real thing.
-Illicit drug dealers have pressing machines to make this perfect replication.
-Fentanyl can be added to any illicit drug bought off the street (Cocaine, MDMA, etc.).
-Fentanyl can knowingly and/or unknowingly be given to you by a “friend”.
-Not every “fentapill” is deadly. Not every part of the ‘fentapill” may be deadly. This is the chocolate chip cookie analogy; you don’t always get a piece of chocolate in every bite.
-Purple is the color to represent overdose and fentanyl awareness.
-Counterfeit pills are being made in homes in every state.
-Never trust any drug not prescribed to YOU or picked up by YOU at a pharmacy.
-Many people ingest fentanyl without even knowing it.
-The effect of fentanyl often causes a “nodding out” effect. This is where a person keeps appearing to fall asleep, even while standing up.
-Some people are revived from a fentanyl overdose with Naloxone, some die instantly and others become highly addicted.
-Know the signs of a person experiencing an overdose: pinpoint pupils, unresponsiveness, irregular breathing, trouble speaking.
-Carry Naloxone- an opioid reversal spray available at a pharmacy without a prescription and/or many other harm reduction sites.
-Fentanyl is thought to be in at least 6/10 laced pills on the street today.
-Carfentanil is a sedative for elephants, polar bears and other large exotic animals. It is 10,000 times more powerful than morphine. 100 times more powerful than fentanyl.
-Drug tests do not pick up on all of the synthetic opioids. Not all hospitals or coroners’ offices test for all the analogs of fentanyl. Not all doctors test for the next drug out there or the ones currently here.
-You do not have to be an addict to die from fentanyl.
-You may need more than one dose of Naloxone to be revived from fentanyl.
-You may receive multiple doses of Naloxone and still not be revived from fentanyl. Don’t believe that everyone can or will be saved by Naloxone.
-Even fentanyl is being mixed with even more potent drugs like xylazine and carfentanil.
-Naloxone can help to bring you back from an overdose but if another drug like xylazine is also in the pill/powder that you took it can NOT undo that as that if it was not an opioid.
-There were approximately 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2023. Seventy percent of those deaths had fentanyl in their system.
-All 107,000 of those people were someone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, wife, husband, friend, colleague, classmate, etc. THEY ALL MATTERED.
-Don’t be misled into thinking that fentanyl is going away with the reduction in overdose death numbers in 2024/2025. There has (thankfully) been more awareness and better access to naloxone.
-There are many different stories of how people have come into contact with fentanyl and died. To name a few ways; some knowingly took a pill they thought was Xanax, Adderall or Percocet, some did a line of what they thought was cocaine, some were active users and some were fooled.
-There are many ways to be fooled and there are many ways to be poisoned by fentanyl. It is criminal.
Most deaths from fentanyl are both an accidental overdose and unintentional poisoning. A homicide. Too many lives are being lost to this man-made opioid. Too many parents are burying their children. Too many siblings are growing up without their brother or sister.
Not every overdose death is investigated or justice found. Not every family has answers as to what happened. Not every family knows the circumstances surrounding their family member’s death. Not every family member got to say goodbye to their loved one.
These hundreds of thousands of lives should not be forgotten or lost in vain. Please continue to be careful, carry naloxone and tell your children every day that they are loved. Please help support family initiatives and other grassroots efforts to educate others about the dangers of fentanyl.
Always be kind and never give up hope!
Mindy