According to an analysis by the FAF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), deaths from these synthetic opioids in children increased faster than any other age group in the country from 2019 to 2021.
Deaths in infants ages 1 to 4 tripled, while deaths in children ages 5 to 14 quadrupled over that period, FAF says.
In many cases, the drug is taken without the person’s knowledge as it is mixed with counterfeit pills or even candy, the organization adds.
Two milligrams of fentanyl, which is the size of a mosquito, is enough to kill an adult, the CDC says.
This health agency reported that more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021, and more than 65,000 of those deaths were fentanyl-related.
Americans ages 25 to 44 accounted for 53.2 percent of the total number of deaths from this synthetic opioid in the country in 2021.
Fentanyl has swept across the United States in recent years and is the latest wave of a drug crisis that began with addictive painkillers and was followed by heroin, a New York Times article recalled recently.
The Drug Enforcement Administration warned it was the deadliest narcotic nationwide, and federal agents said 379 million potentially fatal doses were intercepted last year.
ro/adr