Current Data | Song for Charlie

We estimate ~15% of all drug deaths are caused by fake pills and 2-3 times that for youth ages 15-24.

Over 100K drug-induced deaths, +21% vs. prior year.
Over 64K of these deaths involved fentanyl, mostly illicit, and often in combination with other drugs; this is +34% vs. prior year.
Fentanyl was in 64% of all drug deaths, 84% of all opioid deaths.

Have tripled over 20 years, driven recently by Fentanyl involvement which has grown ~6X in 5 years (+491%).
Meanwhile, in the same 5 years, deaths from Meth, Cocaine, Heroin, Benzos, & Legit Opioids combined have been mostly flat (+11%).
Fentanyl is involved in more youth death than all other drug types combined; many deaths involve multiple drugs.
In 2021, ~7,000 youth will have died with fentanyl involved,76% of all youth drug death.
14 & 17 year-olds have been more than twice as impacted by the growth in fentanyl death involvement over the last 5 years than all other ages.

86% say people their age feel overwhelmed, 71% feel there is a stigma surrounding mental health issues, and only 41% are comfortable talking about their mental health.
Coping with stress is the top reason cited for using prescription drugs without a prescription. 84% say that “coping with stress and anxiety” is a reason people may abuse prescription drugs.
Only 27% of Teens are aware of fentanyl being illicitly used in counterfeit pills, while half of Young Adults are aware of this issue.
When asked to rate how dangerous various drugs are, only 27% of teens and 44% of Young Adults say this about fentanyl, far less than for heroin and cocaine.
Nearly 1-in-4 (23%) don’t know enough to rate fentanyl’s danger at all, the highest level of uncertainty among drugs evaluated. This lack of information on fentanyl is even more common among Teens (35%).

Updated April 2022. All final through December 2020 + selected provisional data through Q32021