Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute

Fentanyl is Flooding into the Inland NW, Triggering a Deadlier Phase of the Opioid Crisis (The Inlander)

10/04/2021

In this article by Wilson Criscione of The Inlander about the flood of fentanyl into Washington State, ADAI’s Dr. Caleb Banta-Green says that it’s rare for an illicit pill looking like an oxy not to be fentanyl. “Banta-Green […] says that every fatal King County overdose in 2020 with an M-30 tablet at the scene tested positive for fentanyl. For those who fatally overdosed and did have oxycodone in their system, they always had a prescription for it.”

Dr. Banta-Green also talks about his approach to the crisis: Keep people alive at all costs. “That means making Narcan even more widely available, and it means safe smoking and injecting supplies to curb the spread of disease,” Criscione writes.