Lane County Public Health announced it’s launched Oregon’s first fentanyl awareness campaign—meant to counteract the scourge of overdoses and deaths from the powerful opioid.
Fentanyl is like nothing we’ve ever seen in our nation’s drug crisis. It’s seriously potent and cheap. That’s why it shows up in counterfeit pills and powders. Lane County’s Overdose Prevention Coordinator Alexander LaVake said the Fentanyl Aware campaign aims to promote safety and knowledge particularly among teens.
“To create a space for young folks and their families to spark conversation about ‘what is fentanyl,’ ‘Why is it in our drug supply,’ ‘What are the risks of it and what does it do to you?’” He added, “we want folks to be empowered, to understand what the signs of an overdose may be.”
LaVake said the campaign is a neutral, supportive outreach effort all about saving lives. Fentanyl Aware will be activated on social media channels to meet teens where they’re at.
The campaign isn’t a “Just say no” pitch, assured LeVake. He acknowledged that experimentation is a part of most teens’ experiences. He also added, some of the overdoses they're seeing in Oregon "are in young people who are quite simply from self-medication.”
“These are folks that are struggling through depression or loneliness or anxiety,” said LaVake. “They’re buying a pill somewhere unknown, thinking that it will relieve some pain. And unfortunately, it’s a much stronger opioid or something that they did not expect to consume.”
The Fentanyl Aware campaign will provide youth, families and community members with the tools to stay safe, respond to overdose and offer strategies to lower the risk of overdose. That includes Narcan education.
Nationally, teen overdose deaths from fentanyl doubled in 2019-2020, LeVake said. From the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in 2021, Oregon reported 11 fentanyl-related fatal overdoses in young people between the ages of 0-17, and 53 overdoses in ages 18-24.
