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  1. Fentanyl is cheap, potent and profitable. Dealers use it to make fake pills, and can mix it into cocaine, heroin, molly/MDMA and other drugs. 

  2. Fentanyl is involved in more American youth drug deaths than heroin, meth, cocaine, benzos and Rx drugs COMBINED.

    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Provisional Multiple Cause of Death on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the final Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2020, and from provisional data for years 2021-2022, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html on Apr 20, 2022.  Uses UCD-15 Leading Causes of Death and identifies MCD-ICD-10 Code T40.4 deaths, motor vehicle accidents, and poisoning deaths as a subset of #Accidents (unintentional injuries) (V01-X59,Y85-Y86) with corresponding netting to form mutually exclusive categories for comparison purposes. Uses provisional reported death counts from 12 months of 7.2020 through 6.2021. Fentanyl-involved  deaths(all intents) under age 50 =46,179, diseases of the heart = 30,785, malignant neoplasms = 28,653, Motor vehicle traffic (accidents) =26,718, Suicide (minus fentanyl involved suicides) = 26,256, homicide (minus fentanyl involved homicides) = 21,856, COVID19 = 20,208, non-fentanyl drug deaths and other accidental poisonings= 18,767, All Other Accidents = 12,290, Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis =11,606
       

  3. Practically all of the pills seized by law enforcement are fake, and 40% contain a potentially lethal amount of fentanly, per DEA.

  4. Fake pills have been found in all 50 states - assume any prescription pill med you see online is fake, including Oxy, Percocet and Xanax

  5. Illegally made fentanyl is the primary driver of the recent increase in all U.S. overdose deaths. Fentanyl-involved deaths are fastest growing among 14-23 year olds.

    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Provisional Multiple Cause of Death on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the final Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2020, and from provisional data for years 2021-2022, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html  on Mar 27, 2022 11:34:06 PM Uses provisional reported death counts from 12 months of 7.2020 through 6.2021. Drug overdose deaths are identified using underlying cause-of-death codes from the Tenth Revision of ICD (ICD–10): X40–X44 (unintentional), X60–X64 (suicide), X85 (homicide), and Y10–Y14 (undetermined). Drug overdose deaths involving selected drug categories are identified by specific multiple cause-of-death codes. Drug categories presented include: heroin (T40.1); natural opioid analgesics, including morphine and codeine, and semisynthetic opioids, including drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone (T40.2); methadone, a synthetic opioid (T40.3); synthetic opioid analgesics other than methadone, including drugs such as fentanyl and tramadol (T40.4); cocaine (T40.5); Benzodiazepines (T42.4), and psychostimulants with abuse potential, which includes methamphetamine (T43.6). “Rx Opioids” uses T40.2+T40.3, “Fentanyl” = T40.4.  Multiple drugs may be involved in one drug death. 12 months ending 12.20: fentanyl = 57K MCD involvements out of 92k total drug-induced deaths, +56% vs. prior year vs. next closest drug type (Meth) = 24K involvements out of 92k total drug-induced deaths, +50% vs. prior year.  Ages 14-23 showed a +52% annual increase in 2020 total drug-induced deaths, higher than all other age groups. +169% annual growth in fentanyl-involved deaths, higher than all other age groups. In each of these two measures, the 5 year age group of 14-18 outpaced the older age group 19-23.  Also Age 14-23 age group has 76% fentanyl involvement in total drug-induced deaths, higher than all other age groups. Summarized data available @ https://www.songforcharlie.org/data
       

  6. Fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any other cause of death, including heart disease, cancer, and all other accidents. 

    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Provisional Multiple Cause of Death on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the final Multiple Cause of Death Files, 2018-2020, and from provisional data for years 2021-2022, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd-icd10-provisional.html on Mar 27, 2022 11:34:06 PM.  Uses UCD-15 Leading Causes of Death and identifies MCD-ICD-10 Code T40.4 deaths as a subset of #Accidents (unintentional injuries) (V01-X59,Y85-Y86). Uses provisional reported death counts from 12 months of 7.2020 through 6.2021. Fentanyl-involved unintentional and undetermined intent deaths under age 50 =43,908, diseases of the heart = 30,757, malignant neoplasms = 28,645, Motor vehicle traffic (accidents) =26,691, Suicide = 26,545, homicide = 21,903, non fentanyl poisonings (accidents)= 21,336, COVID19 = 20,203.  All other causes < 12,000 each.

SOURCES

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