The image shows a hand emerging from a hole in the ground, which is covered in tiny blue pills. On a black background above, the text reads: A stealthy and efficient killer, fentanyl is increasingly finding its way into illicit drugs and into the United States. The high potency makes it ideal for smugglers–it takes up less space while yielding a huge profit. As a synthetic opioid, fentanyl is purely chemical and cheap to produce, not requiring land or good weather like cocaine or heroin. It’s driving U.S. overdose deaths and doing so indiscriminately, claiming both the addicted and the unsuspecting.
Above an image of the San Diego skyline, a line graph shows how fentanyl-related overdose deaths have skyrocketed over the last two decades, far outpacing prescription opioids and heroin, also pictured.
A drawing in black, white and light blue depicts a machine into which chemicals used to make fentanyl are added into a funnel. The machine has an open pipe protruding from it, spewing blue pills cascading on top of a tiny person with a U.S. flag. Below that image, a map features black dots for San Diego and Tucson, the areas through which most fentanyl enters the U.S. Below, an image of people clustered together accompanies text, saying “Migrants are not the problem.” Lastly, the image includes two graphs showing how most of the fentanyl is seized at the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry. The graphs include columns made up of tiny blue pills.
A drawing depicts two men, one standing with a 4.5 pound monkey on his shoulder. The other is lying on his stomach on the ground with a 450 pound gorilla on his back. The text says that fentanyl is 100 times stronger than the prescription painkillers doctors prescribe.
Drawing depicts a woman’s face with text to the side that lists fentanyl’s effects on the body, from relaxation to nausea and vomiting.
The image depicts a drawing of the brain, blowing black smoke, connected to the lungs, illustrated in a steampunk style. The text reads: Fentanyl overdose can cause stupor, changes in pupil size, clammy skin and coma. Death occurs when the breathing receptors in the brain are shut down.
The image shows a drawing of a chocolate cookie next to a tiny blue pill. The text above compares the lack of consistency between chocolate chips in each cookie to the same variation of a deadly dose of fentanyl in pills.
Taking fentanyl is like playing Russian Roulette. A drawing depicts a hand holding a light blue revolver with an open chamber with three of six bullets loaded. The DEA says 50-60% of fake pills contain lethal amounts of fentanyl.
A long, vertical drawing depicts a passenger ship hitting an iceberg and sinking into light blue water. Underneath there are the silhouettes of several sunken ships. At the top, against a midnight starry sky, the text says, there were 74,702 U.S. deaths from fentanyl in 2023. That’s like 50 Titanics sinking.
A drawing depicts a jet airplane falling out of the sky, leaving a trail of black smoke. The text says, 74,702 lives lost in 2023 alone. That’s like a commercial plane crash every day for over one year.
An animation shows a drawing of one airplane expanding to 375 airplanes lined in a grid.
A drawing in light blue and black lines depicts an empty Atlanta, with one lone voice saying, “Hello?” The text says that in the past decade, more than a half-million people have died from fentanyl, which is like the entire population of Atlanta vanishing.
A drawing depicts the boundaries of the U.S. and Canada filled with people’s faces. The text says, in 2023, the DEA seized more than 80 million pills and 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, the equivalent of more than 390 million lethal doses… more than enough to kill every single person in the U.S. and Canada.
A drawing depicts the man lying on his bed, another man nearby seated in a chair. The text says, “Tim’s friend was passed out in a chair nearby. The pills they had just taken were laced with fentanyl. Now Tim wasn’t breathing.” Below, two drawings depict Tim’s earlier life, long before addiction set in. He’s shown skateboarding, and then seeing a doctor for an injury. He later took his first pain pill.
Drawings show Tim ordering pills using a social media app on his phone and taking a pill. The text says he liked the way the pills made him feel. A drawing depicts nine pills and says one day Tim took that many. Another drawing depicts a group of four people sitting around a dinner table, smiling. There’s one empty chair. The text says, “His family had no idea.”
Three drawings tell more of Tim’s story. One shows him cheerful with family or friends, dressed in his Army uniform. Another shows him returning home with a knapsack and dressed in fatigues. Another shows him in a cemetery with others. The text says that while his military service gave him a break from drugs, when he came home he fell in with his old crowd again and grew aimless. Then he learned his best friend from high school had died from a fentanyl overdose. He grew depressed and turned back to drugs.
A drawing depicts two men, Tim and a friend, walking down the street in Rosarito, Mexico, where they’re looking for pills.
Three panels depict a gleeful Tim’s face, a man facing a wall of pharmaceuticals, and a drawing of a man in silhouette leaning over a sink. The text says, they were like kids in a candy store in the pharmacy. They bought more than 500 pills and sampled some. Tim vomited black liquid back at the hotel. His stomach lining had eroded from drug use.
Two drawings depict cars entering Mexico at the border crossing and one outstretched hand dropping pills into another. The text says, “They returned to Rosarito a few months later to buy more pills. A thousand this time. Back at their apartment in the U.S. they sampled some of the stash.”
A drawing depicts Tim lying on his back on his bed passed out and another person sitting in a chair nearby. The image takes readers back to the start of the story.
Two drawings depict the scene when Tim overdosed from a pill that contained fentanyl. In one, he’s lying on the bed, turning purple, and a friend is in the chair nearby. In the other, the friend wakes and notices Tim’s condition and yells for help.
Drawings show a roommate calling 911 near Tim’s still body, an ambulance racing down the street and a paramedic administering naloxone to Tim by spraying the medicine into his nostril.
A drawing depicts the silhouette of someone lying in a hospital bed and a vase of flowers with a balloon that says “Get Well.” Text above the images says “Tim wound up in the I.C.U. for four days, but he survived the overdose. The episode was so traumatic for Tim and his family, he says it “completely motivated him to stay sober.
A drawing of Tim, smiling. The text says he’s doing well lately and has a new lease on life with the help of a V.A. sobriety program. He’s even visiting schools to warn kids of the dangers of drugs. But not everyone’s fentanyl story turns out so well.
A drawing depicts five San Diegans who have died from fentanyl overdoses. The text says, “Staggering loss: Many San Diegans have died from fentanyl in the past decade – about 570 in 2023 alone.”
Caroline Walker is depicted in a drawing. She has a tattoo on her arm that says, “Cassandra,” with a heart and dove in flight. The text says she lost her daughter, Cassie, in 2022. Now she works to spread the word about fentanyl’s dangers. “I just want to spread awareness and save lives,” she says.
Text says, “Fentanyl is claiming people from all walks of life.” Below, several drawings clustered together depict people who’ve died of fentanyl overdoses, including Prince, the acclaimed musician, Sean Burroughs, a former Padres player, and Michael K. Williams, a prominent actor.
A drawing of naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, is shown on the top, alongside text that describes how more government agencies, schools and other organizations are making the drug more readily available. Below, four vertical drawings depict Tim’s body first at the edge of the precipice, then hoisted into the air on a rescue stretcher hanging from a naloxone helicopter.
A drawing depicts a skull-and-crossbones for which the skull is a blue fentanyl pill. Below, the text says, “We can blame China and the drug cartels for the fentanyl crisis all we want, but the real problem is America’s voracious appetite for drugs – and not just for fentanyl. And a 1980’s style “War on Drugs” won’t solve the problem. The country needs treatment, education and awareness – and Narcan in more public places, free of charge. These grim statistics don’t have to follow us for the next decade.”
A text-only card says, “What to do if you think someone is overdosing: Call 9-1-1, administer narcan if possible, keep person awake and breathing, lay person on their side to prevent choking, stay with them until emergency workers arrive. Call 211 to find narcan/naloxone near you.
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Steve Breen was born in Los Angeles, raised in Orange County and graduated from the University of California at Riverside with a degree in political science. He's a contributor to inewsource. Steve got his start in newspapers at the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey in 1994. He was offered the editorial...