Introduction
“Fentanyl continues to drive overdose deaths in Virginia. Statewide, the synthetic opioid contributed to 76.5% of the 2,656 overdose deaths in 2021, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The community of people who’ve lost loved ones to the drug is quickly growing, many looking for ways to draw focus to a problem they believe is not getting enough attention.” (source)
Watch Now!
Quotes
“These are the people employing their stories of heartbreak, helping to communicate a message that this can happen to you. A synthetic opioid so widespread, its effects are metastasizing to the non-addicted.”
“Every morning I still walk past and look into her room as if she’s going to be there. Maybe that will change, but probably not.”
“They are creating a completely new pill that their marketing as a legitimate prescribed painkiller, but in fact it contains fentanyl.”
“What makes fentanyl so deadly is it’s a painkiller that’s 100x stronger than morphine and 50x more powerful than heroin. Some people addicted to opioids or other drugs turned to it in search of a greater high. Only two milligrams are enough to kill.”
“It leads to a neurological phenomenon that is called Dopamine Flooding, which basically means there’s more dopamine released within the nervous system than the brain is naturally able to cope with and able to handle. As a result, the brain is overwhelmed … and it begins to shut down.”
“It’s important to get the message across that fentanyl is in different types of drugs and it’s being laced in things. It’s something that needs to be out into the world, that this is happening and it’s not an overdose as some of the signs say, it’s poisoning. People are being poisoned by this.”
CADENCE
“When they’re taking heroin or prescription pills or anything like that, the half-life is really, really short. It gives them a quick high and then they come crashing down and they need another hit to keep going.”
“It was a fatal crossroads for Joey Travieso as depression set the stage of his tragic overdose. [Kimberly] heals through Joey’s Heart, a non-profit buoyed by inspirational children’s books she authored … and her magazine inspired by Joey’s challenges, Bully. ‘It is motivational stories about people sharing their testimonies and how they overcame the challenges in life.’ “
“When I was about 15, that’s when I really started using pills and drinking. It really wasn’t a problem until I turned 17 and that’s when I was pretty much using daily – benzos and opiates. It wasn’t until I was 19 that I started using heroin and I kind of fell in love with that. I continued to use heroin for almost 10 years.”
“You can say Jan Brown and her SpiritWorks Foundation Center for the Soul helped saved Bellamy’s life … A big part of what we do is provide recovery support services so that whatever the outcome or whatever it is along the journey that somebody is having, we can be a supportive community for that family or for that mom or for that child.”
“Dr. Paul Hardy runs Recovery For Life in Virginia Beach – treatment through group and individual counselling that focuses on the mind and heart.”
Continue Learning
Hey there! I hope you found this resource useful! If you’re interested in learning more about some of the topics discussed, you can browse through these additional resources. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help with anything else.
Fentanyl
- Detecting Fentanyl. Saving Lives.
- Fentanyl: America’s Grim New Opioid Addiction
- Fentanyl: One Pill Kills
- Fentanyl Accounts for A Majority of Fatal Overdoses. But ERs Aren’t Testing For It
- Fentanyl Facts (CDC)
- Fentanyl Plus Stimulants Drives ‘Fourth Wave’ of Overdose Epidemic in The U.S.
- How The Fentanyl Crisis’ Fourth Wave Has Hit Every Corner of the US
- Inside a Free Fentanyl and Heroin Clinic
- Responding to a Fentanyl Overdose: What California First Responders Need to Know
- Straight Talk: Street Fentanyl [PDF]
- The Impact of The Deadly Fentanyl ‘Plague’ On One American City
- Why Fentanyl Is So Incredibly Dangerous
Opioid Crisis
- Beyond Supply: How We Must Tackle the Opioid Epidemic [PDF]
- California’s Opioid Crisis
- Facts About Naltrexone [PDF]
- Fentanyl: America’s Grim New Opioid Addiction
- How America Got Hooked on Opioids
- How Good Intentions Contributed to Bad Outcomes [PDF]
- How the Government is Making the Opioid Crisis Worse
- Opioid Crisis: Addiction, Overprescription, and Insufficient Primary Prevention
- The Impact of the Deadly Fentanyl ‘Plague’ on One American City
- The Opioid Crisis in Canada: A National Perspective
- Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic
- Unraveling the Start of the Opioid Crisis
- What Led to the Opioid Crisis – and How to Fix It
- Why Is There an Opioid Crisis?
Opioid Use Disorder
- 2-Minute Neuroscience: Opioids
- Drug Addiction: How Opioids Like Fentanyl Work
- How Do Opiates Affect the Nervous System?
- How Drugs Hijack Your Brain’s Mu Opioid Receptors
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Opiate Addiction | The Causes
- Opiate Addiction | The Signs
- Opiate Addiction | Why It’s So Intense
- Opiate Use Disorder or Opiate Addiction?
- Opioid Addiction (CAMH)
- Opioid Overdose (WHO)
- Opioid Use Disorder (NIH)
- Opioid Use Disorder: Medical Treatment Options
- Opioids & the Body: The Science of An Overdose
- Signs of Opioid Use Disorder
- Therapeutic Approaches to Opioid Use Disorder: What is the Current Standard of Care?
- This Is What Happens to Your Brain on Opioids
- Treatment of Opioid-Use Disorders
- What Causes Opioid Addiction, and Why Is It So Tough to Combat?
Medication-Assisted Treatment
- 2-Minute Neuroscience: Methadone
- Buprenorphine: Quick Start Guide [PDF]
- Buprenorphine for Chronic Pain: A Safer Alternative to Traditional Opioids
- How Are Methadone and Suboxone Different?
- How Do You Decide Between Methadone and Suboxone?
- How Opioid Treatment Medications Work on Your Brain
- Medication for Opioid Use Disorder
- Methadone Maintenance Therapy Versus No Opioid Replacement Therapy for Opioid Dependence
- Mothers & Methadone
- Opioid Agonist Therapy
- Opioid Substitution Therapy—Time to Replace The Term
- Part 1: Introducing Opioid Substitution Treatment (UK)
- What is Methadone? Methadone vs Suboxone for Treating Opioid Addiction
- What Is Opioid Pharmacotherapy?
Share Your Opinion
If you have finished reviewing this resource and have some spare time, I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide your opinion. Was it useful and informative? Did you run into any problems or find something distasteful? I’m thankful for any constructive and helpful feedback to help me improve.
* Your review will be for this specific post and as a result will affect the star rating of the resource. All submissions are reviewed for approval to filter out spam and inappropriate comments. Your email is requested as I may want to follow-up with you. Please also be aware that your review may be placed publicly on this website for others to read.
There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.
