Fentanyl cases are skyrocketing in Arizona

Fentanyl cases are skyrocketing in Arizona. Fentanyl is the most common substance found in opioid overdose deaths in Arizona. Teens as young as 14 years old have overdosed and died.

Illegal fentanyl is being mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. This is especially dangerous because people are often unaware that fentanyl has been added.

Stephanie Siete of Community Bridges is a leading expert on drug trends, prevention, signs, and symptoms. She has worked for more than a decade to educate the public about drug dangers. She will speak more about the issue of fentanyl in Arizona.

What is Fentanyl?

“It’s an extreme opioid,” she then explains the connection between different opioids, “Prescription pain killers, then the big sister would be heroine, the queen bee is fentanyl,” Siete said.

How potent and addictive is Fentanyl?

“Heroine is pretty strong, it’s progressed over the years. When you get in something like fentanyl that’s fifty times stronger than heroine, some reports say even more, it’s addictive,” she said.

Why are overdoses skyrocketing?

“As Arizonans, some of these drugs might be bad for other places in the country, but they come through our state,” Siete said. The cartel traffics the drugs into the state, which causes it to be more of a concern.

“You hear a lot on a daily note, how much of this stuff is being street stopped, have traffic stops at the border, hundreds of thousands of pills. There’s been over 20 million pills that have crossed into Arizona just in 2022,” she said.

Are children more susceptible?

“It only takes miniscule amounts of this stuff, and I’ve tried to compare to grains of salt. You might not even see it, so it can be tainted into anything, usually pills,” Siete said. She goes on to say that they can be in the form of powder, patches, liquids, or any form for that matter.

“If you aren’t talking to your kid about candy-like looking substances, then you should be extra heightened alert,” Siete said.