Understanding the Fentanyl Crisis
Austin Police Department veteran gives excellent overview
Over the last year I’ve heard multiple stories of young people taking what they thought were recreational drugs—or pharmaceutical drugs for recreational purposes—that turned out to be spiked with fatal quantifies of fentanyl.
Fentanyl is making its way into a wide range of drugs, including stimulants. This means that, even if young people believe they are playing with typical party drugs such as cocaine, adderall, MDMA (“ecstasy”) or Xanax, they may in fact ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl.
By current estimates, 112,000 Americans died in 2023 from accidental drug overdose or poisoning. That’s twice the number of American servicemen who died in ten years of combat in Vietnam.
An irony resulting from lethal doses of fentanyl turning up in cocaine is that it has prompted more than one Drug Dunce among my old friends to kick the habit cold turkey. This reminds me of Samuel Johnson’s famous remark:
Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
Contemplating the prospect of dying after snorting a line of coke has concentrated their minds wonderfully on quitting.
Ten months ago, Austin Police Department veteran Anthony Hipolito had a long conversation with Dr. Peter Attia about the Fentanyl crisis. Readers of our Substack—especially the parents of adolescents—would probably find it highly informative.
Given that simple prohibition doesn’t work very well with anyone—and especially not with teenagers—parents are facing the imperative the try to discuss this massive problem with their kids in a candid way.
As we try to make sense of news reports of young people dying suddenly and unexpectedly, it’s worth bearing in mind that fentanyl-induced death happens very quickly after the victim consumes the drug. If witnesses are at hand (within the context of a party or other social event) they will likely observe the victim pass out and stop breathing.
In cases in which the victim dies on an athletic field or in the early morning hours in his sleep, sudden cardiac arrest resulting from heart damage caused by COVID-19 vaccines should be suspected.
It was difficult to convince my kids that the smartest choice was to avoid the covid injections. At least we were able to have the conversation. But when it comes to recreational drugs, teens think they know everything and can handle the risks, and therefore often cut Mom and Dad out of the entire picture. I think sharing this video is an excellent idea for parents of teens.
My wife is an APRN who works in addiction medicine and is the medical director of a full service behavioral health clinic. She will tell you that almost every patient comes in telling her they took something other than fentanyl but they ALL test positive for it. It is literally in everything now, even laced on weed sometimes.