shades fills you in

What is fentanyl? -- A new scary opioid

Police seized nearly 10 million fentanyl pills in 2021, almost 50 times the rate four years ago -- NPR

And more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died of overdoses in 2021 -- an all-time record

The CDC says teenage fentanyl deaths are up 3x, and 5x among Black teens, over the past 2 years

The Hollywood Reporter also explains many people don’t even know they’re taking it -- drug makers are hiding fentanyl in other more innocuous party drugs -- and people are dying

Overdoses from a new cocaine fentanyl combo are also on the rise

The WSJ tells the story of three NYC professionals who died from the same batch of fentanyl-laced cocaine. They didn’t know they were taking fentanyl and all three died on the same day

Wait, why would drug dealers want to add fentanyl to cocaine? Substacker Zachary Siegel says it’s not because they’re trying to kill their customers. It’s way more likely because of accidental contamination

In August 2022, the DEA warned parents of “rainbow fentanyl” -- a brightly-colored version of the dangerous drug that looks like candy. The DEA is worried that rainbow fentanyl targets kids and teens

But Reason Magazine said this was nonsense. No one’s trying to drug your kids! Journalists need to stop pushing this urban myth -- kids aren’t a profitable customer for drug dealers

Where is the fentanyl coming from? The SFGate reports that Mexican cartels import the base ingredients from China and India and smuggle it into the U.S

And with more demand, they’ve shifted to industrial scale labs to produce fentanyl and meth in huge quantities

Heritage: It’s well past time for America to shut down this distribution chain

Brown Study: One way to reduce overdoses? Give people home testing kits to find out if their drugs are laced

And community groups say we need to widely distribute naloxone, a drug that can reverse an overdose. Now, mostly hospitals and fire departments have it. But fentanyl overdoses are so fast that you need it everywhere

HHS Secretary says the Biden administration has a new strategy. NPR reports that this includes controversial programs like needle exchanges