“Fentanyl has 40 times the potency of heroin and 80 times the potency of morphine.”
it overseas. “People are always looking for anesthetics and pain killers, and fentanyl just is a very potent one.” Gilson believes drug dealers saw the opportunity to tap into a new market and introduced fentanyl to the minority community. “Cocaine is a stimulant, and fen- tanyl is a depressant. Mixing the two most seems like a business decision for people who make their living from hurting people through drugs, so fentanyl steadily in- filtrated the market.” While morphine and heroin are made from plants and require ideal growing envi- ronments, fentanyl is manufactured in laboratories, making production easier and faster. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, Gilson be- lieves there may have been some correlations be- tween 2020 overdose numbers and effects from the pandemic. “There was a spike in May, and that’s when many people received their first federal stimulus checks. That also fell around a time when many of the heavier stay-at-home restrictions were temporarily lifted. So there may have been a combination of people having extra mon- ey in their pockets and losing tolerance of being inside the house. It may have just been a perfect storm.” Gilson says risk reduction programs and efforts are the fu- ture of addressing these staggering numbers, as community leaders work to introduce greater numbers of Narcan kits to the community. They have also begun including fentanyl test strips with the distribution kits. “If someone is using drugs, knowing if it’s laced with fentanyl could modify their behavior and serve as a wake-up call to save their life.” Plans are also in place to expand county educational programs
in schools. “We want to be in middle and high schools offering timely advice and discour- aging children from going down that path.”
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