While driving through Boise recently you may have noticed billboards with the phrase “All it took …” followed by an image and a description such as “a dog’s best friend,” “a son” or “a young mother.”
These billboards are part of Idaho’s recent “Fentanyl Takes All” campaign which was launched by Governor Brad Little at the beginning of the year and is intended to educate the public about the dangers of fentanyl.
Overdoses due to fentanyl have been increasing at alarming rates over the past several years. In Idaho specifically, overdoses from fentanyl more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
In an effort to combat rising fentanyl-related deaths in the United States, the U.S. Senate recently introduced a bipartisan resolution to designate May 9 as “National Fentanyl Awareness Day.”
National Fentanyl Awareness Day was recognized and promoted by thousands of nonprofits, companies, politicians and government agencies. In Idaho, Governor Brad Little marked the day by speaking to students at Kuna High School about the dangers of fentanyl and recreational drug use.
“Take this problem seriously and learn more about it,” Governor Little said in his address at Kuna High School. “Most importantly, take care of each other. Look out for yourselves and your friends.”
In the coming weeks, Governor Little is planning to travel to the Texas-Mexico border, bringing with him a team of Idaho State Police to assist the State of Texas on a month-long mission for fentanyl interdiction efforts at the border.
The mission coincides with the expiration of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy introduced by Former President Donald Trump roughly three years ago. Title 42 severely limited immigration to the United States by halting nearly all asylum applications, but the policy officially expired on May 11.
In a press release discussing the Idaho State Police’s mission to the Texas-Mexico border, Governor Little said that the expiration would lead to “an expected spike in illegal border crossings and even more fentanyl coming across the open border.”
However, targeting the border as a means to combat the rise of fentanyl has two key problems — first, the spike in fentanyl-related overdoses occurred while Title 42 was still in place, meaning the drug was increasing in prevalence even with an almost entirely closed border.
The second problem is that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the number of migrants attempting to cross the border has remained steady in the week since Title 42 was lifted.
Education and harm reduction are the best, most effective ways to limit the number of overdose deaths. The Idaho Harm Reduction Project provides naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, to the public free of charge.
The Idaho Harm Reduction Project is the largest distributor of naloxone in the state, and even provides the medication to the Idaho State Police. The nonprofit has only been in operation since 2020, and in its first year provided nearly 4,000 naloxone kits and from that received confirmation of roughly 250 overdose reversals.
If you, or anyone you know, uses recreational drugs, the best thing to do is have naloxone on hand at any given time.
