Science — not more scare-mongering — is what will keep kids from fentanyl deaths

In 2023, drug overdose deaths declined for the first time since 2018.

While drug deaths remain unacceptably high –– at more than 100,000 last year –– at least we’re finally moving in the right direction.

But there is one slice of the population where deaths have jumped significantly: adolescents, teens, and young people. 

Research shows that an average of 22 Americans ages 14 to 18 died from drug overdoses every single week during 2022.

Those researchers identified hot spots –– like Maricopa County, Ariz., and Los Angeles, Calif. –– where youth overdoses are highest.

Here, fake pills containing fentanyl have flooded the market. The pills are cheaper than ever and easily accessible on the social media platforms beloved by young people. 

Our government has been trying to prevent young people from using drugs for more than a century. These campaigns have mostly involved scare tactics solely focusing on the consequences of drug use.

But while they may make for good commercials, such strategies usually fail as kids tune them out.

But in the age of fentanyl, we must trade fear-mongering for accurate and compassionate drug education based on science. Sadly, many states are failing to deliver. 

Recently, I spoke with grieving parents and families who are fighting for robust and effective drug education and prevention. As a person in long-term recovery, I can sympathize. My own drug education was a failure. 

Kids like me who grew up in the 1980s remember D.A.R.E. officers coming to our classrooms warning us about the dangers of drugs. It was the wrong message and the wrong messenger.

What we needed instead were practical tools and information that we could understand and identify with.

Thankfully, there are proven strategies to reduce the misuse of harmful substances. Take the hugely successful anti-tobacco (nongovernmental) Truth Initiative focused on young people. Truth worked because the campaign understood how teenagers think.

The goal was to craft a set of messages that never sounded preachy, that never condemned or blamed smokers; that told teens that Big Tobacco lied to them and then directed teens to rebel against it.

Young people who saw Truth ads reported being 66% more likely to say they would not smoke in the coming year. 

We need a national Truth campaign for fentanyl. And it must start by understanding the nature of the problem we’re now dealing with. 

Most young people who die from fentanyl do so after taking counterfeit pills.

Fake but deadly, these pills are pressed and shaped into popular medicines like oxycodone, Xanax, and Adderall.

Most have no physiological tolerance for potent synthetic opioids, so taking just one fake pill can prove deadly.

This is the new reality of taking pills in America and it means we must adapt to it. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration wasn’t kidding when it launched the nationwide “One Pill Can Kill” campaign. The DEA’s slogan is concise and memorable.

But I’m worried that young people are still not hearing the government’s message, even if “One Pill Can Kill” is technically true.

Just as Truth ads understood they are competing with Big Tobacco, the DEA’s message is competing with a culture that tells all of us every day that there’s a pill to fix everything — that pills are a quick and easy solutions for what ails us. And this is a hard reality to undo.

To reach kids with a message that truly resonates, we must also think locally. For instance, The Wolfe Street Foundation program in Arkansas was the state’s first community-based youth recovery program designed for students in grades 7-12.

The program deploys a peer model, which means young people who’ve been impacted by substance use are also the program’s messengers. Wolfe Street recognizes that peers are crucial to getting young people to truly hear fentanyl warnings.

Parents still have an important role to play, too. I recommend parents visit the Ad Council, which offers advice for adults about how to talk to their kids about fentanyl.

Experts like Dr. Scott Hadland, a pediatrician in charge of adolescent and young adult medicine at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical school, says it’s crucial to be honest, compassionate, and open when talking with kids about complicated and hard subjects like drugs. 

Stanford medical school recommends that drug education for young people focus on three key pillars: First, the curriculum must be scientifically based.

Second, it must be engaging and interactive because that’s how young people learn best. Lastly, it must be compassionate. Drug education ought to consider the fact that most young people will not try substances at all. And that’s good news.

But those who try them at some point are probably struggling with other aspects of life, like mental health, family stress, or some physical or emotional pain.  

We live in a culture that celebrates quick fixes and pills for every ailment. That’s why saving kids from fentanyl is going to be an uphill battle that we all must fight together. 

Ryan Hampton is a national addiction recovery advocate and author of the forthcoming book “Fentanyl Nation: Toxic Politics and America’s Failed War on Drugs”  to be released by St. Martin’s Press on Sept. 24.