The drug fentanyl is killing a growing number of U.S. kids and teens.
Doctors prescribe such opioids to patients with cancer and other conditions that cause severe pain. But some people also make and sell fentanyl illegally. In recent years, fentanyl has contaminated more and more illegal drugs. That’s dangerous, because fentanyl is about 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, another opioid. As a result, even a very tiny amount of fentanyl can be deadly.
In 2021, more than 1,500 U.S. kids and teens died from fentanyl overdoses. That was far greater than the number of young people killed by other opioids that year. And it was four times as many fentanyl-related deaths as there were in 2018. Those findings appeared May 8 in JAMA Pediatrics.
Science News Explores spoke with Sarah Bagley about the dangers of fentanyl. Bagley is a pediatrician and addiction-care provider at Boston University in Massachusetts. She explains how young people get exposed to this illegal drug, how they can avoid it and what to do in case of an overdose. (This interview has been edited for content and readability.)
How do young people encounter fentanyl?
Most young people are encountering fentanyl when they buy pills that they think are pain medications or stimulants (like Adderall), but actually contain fentanyl. In other words, most young people do not know they are at risk for being exposed to fentanyl. This kind of fentanyl is what we call “illicitly made fentanyl.” That means it was not produced by a pharmaceutical company. This is in this illegal market.
Teenagers think they are purchasing maybe Adderall or Percocet or oxycodone. Pills that contain…
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