Fentanyl: The Quiet Catastrophe Tearing America Apart

We all know that the America of today faces serious and life-threatening challenges affecting tens of millions of people. We might count on the news media to keep us informed but in recent years, one of these critically important issues has disappeared from our news sources. That missing news story is the tragic loss of life due to the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

In the following chart, you can see why this problem deserves our attention. This chart clearly shows the increase in fentanyl overdose deaths between 2002 and 2023. In 2002, when the only fentanyl being abused was a small quantity diverted from medical sources, we lost 2,358 lives to this drug. By 2023, we lost 75,294 lives to fentanyl. That’s an increase of nearly 3,200% in less than a generation.

This vast wave of fentanyl deaths wasn’t due to medical supplies being diverted to the illicit market. This new fentanyl was manufactured in large, clandestine labs using chemicals sent to America from overseas.

Silence Falls on Fentanyl Trafficking and Deaths

 

For a short while, after fentanyl deaths began to surge in 2014–2015, fentanyl was in the headlines. Official statements reported on small packages of fentanyl being shipped from China or India. Later, large quantities of precursor chemicals were shipped from these countries to drug traffickers who set up labs to make this powerful drug. It was then trafficked into every corner of America using already-established trafficking channels.

But this subject seems absent from our media now. News sources seem to have gone largely silent on the subject of fentanyl and its catastrophic harms. Every subject covered in the media has a life span, and now, fentanyl’s appearance in the news seems to be in the past. The losses due to this drug keep increasing, but America now hears about them less often. Until we have a real solution in place, interest in solving this problem must be kept alive.

A Briefing on Fentanyl

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. In other words, this painkiller is created in a lab. Because it does not require any plant material as do morphine and cocaine, for example, crop failures or weather changes do not affect its production.

While the news media and government agencies refer to the number of deaths from fentanyl, they are actually talking about a group of chemically similar drugs. There’s the original fentanyl and then there are fentanyl “analogs.” In chemistry and pharmaceutical production, an analog is a compound with a molecular structure similar to that of another product. The most common fentanyl analogs on the illicit market include:

• Para-fluorofentanyl
• Acetyl fentanyl
• Fluorofentanyl
• Despropionyl fentanyl
• Carfentanil

This is not a complete list. There are dozens of other drugs in this family.

No matter what type of fentanyl is found in illicit drug supplies or where it comes from, it’s a powerfully deadly drug. Original fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin, and carfentanil is 10,000 times more potent than morphine. It is devastatingly easy to fatally overdose.

Fentanyl’s Effect on Different Age Groups

Fentanyl does not only create devastation among adults. Every age group suffers death and destruction from this family of drugs, even small children.

Seem hard to believe? There is, in fact, a crisis of pediatric opioid deaths.

Small Children

Between 2018 and 2021, the rate of fentanyl overdose deaths among children ages zero to four years increased nearly 600%. In 2021 alone, 40 infants and 93 children aged one to four years died from fentanyl overdoses.

Small children may be exposed to the residue of fentanyl powder on furniture after an adult snorts or smokes the powder. Millions of counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl are distributed on the illicit market every year and pills may be left in the reach of a small child. A child in a home with a drug user or drug dealer has a high risk of fentanyl exposure.

Teens

Between 1999 and 2021, more than 4,600 adolescents between 15 and 19 years of age died from fentanyl poisoning. This age group accounted for nearly 90% of all fatal pediatric opioid poisonings. Four out of ten of these deaths occurred at home, and the vast majority were unintentional. In this age group, the loss of life increased nearly 300% between 2018 and 2021.

Adults

Adults from 25 to 54 years of age have the greatest burden of fentanyl overdose deaths. For every 100,000 people between the ages of 25 and 34, more than 40 died from fentanyl overdose. And for every 100,000 people aged 35 to 44, 43.5 died from a fentanyl overdose. These are the highest rates for any age group.

Older adults

Older adults are not immune to the threat of fentanyl. Among those aged 65 or older and covered by Medicare, 2% meet the criteria for substance use disorder. The rate of fatal drug overdoses in this group quadrupled between 2002 and 2021. In just one year, between 2019 and 2020, the fentanyl overdose rate in this age group increased 53%. Then, between 2021 and 2022, the rate increased by another 10%.

The Particularly Devastating Effect on American Men and the American Military

With fentanyl as with many other drugs, far more men than women are affected. With fentanyl, 70% of deaths are male. At ages when they should be starting families or careers or joining the military, too many are injured by or lost to addiction. This has a damaging effect on America’s military readiness as well as our families. Men who become addicted may never be able to responsibly head a household unless they get help to leave drug use behind.

The Pentagon has recognized the barrier to recruitment created by drug use or the recruitment challenges tied to both physical fitness and drug use issues among potential recruits. Thirty-two percent of youth aged 17 to 24 would not be qualified for the military because of drug or alcohol abuse (8% for this reason alone plus another 24% for drugs and alcohol plus another reason).

Fentanyl is also killing active-duty service members. Between 2015 and 2022, a total of 127 soldiers died because of fentanyl. In 2021, fentanyl was the primary drug killing active-duty service members who died of drug overdoses. That year, we lost 27 soldiers to this drug. In 2020 alone, the Navy started five investigations into fentanyl-related deaths at the Navy’s largest training facility and boot camp, the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois.

Incredible Increase in Fentanyl Deaths Without a Solution

Fentanyl manufacturers and traffickers continue to slay Americans with increasing volume. If homicide or traffic accident statistics increased like this, there would be an uproar. To bring back the America we love and a world in which our loved ones don’t have to face this threat, Americans must work together. There are thousands of groups and individuals fighting drug abuse with every ounce of their energy. Give them your support.

Parents and extended family are vital elements in the elimination of fentanyl deaths. Youth must be motivated to set and reach goals, and their lives must be monitored to detect any early signs of drug abuse. Gravitating to heavier, stronger drugs after starting with cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana is extremely common. For that reason, these three substances are not harmless.

Encourage children to avoid any substance abuse until they are 21, at least, and they have a shot at avoiding fatal consequences or ruinous addiction. Be as suspicious as you need to be to achieve this goal. Don’t accept excuses or lies. Your child’s life is very likely to be at stake.

If you care about an older individual who is using drugs (including fentanyl!), get them help. Find them an effective drug rehab and get them started on it. Otherwise, the next day could be their last.

Work together with teachers, coaches, ministers, and community members to fight back. Working together, we can rebuild a safer America.

Sources:

• “Data Brief 491. Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2002–2022.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024. CDC

• “Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024. CDC

• “Fentanyl Flow to the United States.” Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020. DEA

• “Quick Facts, Fentanyl Analogue Trafficking.” US Sentencing Commission, 2024. USSC

• “National Trends in Pediatric Deaths From Fentanyl, 1999–2021.” JAMA Pediatrics, 2023. JAMA Network

• “Study: Fentanyl involved in 94% of pediatric opioid deaths in 2021.” American Academy of Pediatrics, 2023. AAP

• “Fentanyl Overdose Death Rates More Than Tripled From 2016 to 2021.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023. CDC

• “Twenty-Year Trends in Drug Overdose Fatalities Among Older Adults in the US.” National Library of Medicine, 2023. NLM

• “Drug Overdose Deaths in Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2000–2020.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022. CDC

• “The Target Population for Military Recruitment.” Office of People Analytics, Department of Defense, 2023. Department of Defense

• “Stars and Stripes: With Military Recruitment Already Struggling, We Cannot Afford a Fentanyl Crisis in Our Armed Forces.” Blog of Congressman Morgan Luttrell, 2023. Congressman Luttrell’s blog

• “Fentanyl takes lives at the Navy’s boot camp base.” Navy Times, 2023. Navy Times