Laced & Lethal - Growing Concerns about Fentanyl
Mercer Island Healthy Youth Initiative partners with King County new fentanyl overdose prevention campaign, targeted specifically to reach young people between the ages of 14 to 18 years old. Laced & Lethal is designed to teach teens about the risk of buying pills and powders potentially laced with fentanyl, a powerful and often deadly drug.
Shared Concern Across King County
King County is seeing more and more substances laced with fentanyl, especially counterfeit pills. Between 2018-2020, King County saw a 167 percent increase in the number of fentanyl involved deaths. Extremely troubling is the fact that 18 local youth died of fatal overdose in 2020. “In King County, from 2015 to 2020, fentanyl overdose deaths increased from three to 174. These tragic and preventable deaths are happening in all areas of the county.
What Can We Do on Mercer Island?
We do not see a lot of pill and powder use in our young people population on Mercer Island, but with the potential for tragedy and the severity of consequences, it is important we have access to this information as a community. Call 911 if you see a person in distress, under the Good Samaritan law that person is not going to get in any trouble with the law, and instead receive the medical help they need.
Resources from Laced & Lethal
A website with key information about the risks of fentanyl and ways to prevent overdose and death, https://lacedandlethal.com/
A social media campaign that will reach youth on frequented and relevant channels, with information on fentanyl, how to recognize and respond to overdose as well as where to get free naloxone for themselves and their friends.
A downloadable toolkit of overdose prevention materials such as posters, stickers, and a communications guide for community partners that serve youth.
King County will offer access to free naloxone, an emergency response drug that given immediately in the event of an overdose can reverse an opioid overdose and save a life.
The campaign was developed in partnership with Rescue | The Behavior Change Agency (Rescue). To learn more visit, https://lacedandlethal.com/, and follow & share where you consume social media.