WGNS News Radio:
TN Court News: For far too many Americans, the opioid epidemic has become an all too familiar tragedy. Friends, colleagues, and family members across the country have had their lives hijacked or lost due to these powerful drugs. While all opioids are dangerous if abused, one drug in recent years has proven to be in a lethal class of its own. With grim efficiency, even small amounts of fentanyl can and do kill.
In an effort to protect one of our most impressionable populations from this drug, the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference recently launched an educational campaign directed at teenagers called Fentanyl: The Deadliest High. The Conference and individual district attorneys are using a mixture of social media and school outreach to let middle and high schoolers know about the unique dangers of fentanyl.
“Why we’re doing this now is because fentanyl is what’s killing people,” Guy Jones, executive director of the TNDAGC, said.
The numbers affirm this. In just the past decade, fentanyl and its analogues have contributed to a sharp rise in overdose deaths. Nationally, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fatal overdoses associated with illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues have jumped from 2,666 in 2011 to 31,335 in 2018.