Alabama’s major statewide health organizations have joined forces to raise attention about the dangers and prevalence of illicit fentanyl, a powerful drug that is the leading cause of overdose deaths in Alabama and across the nation.

Leaders of the state medical association, hospital association, and the departments of public health and mental health spoke today outside Jackson Hospital in Montgomery to launch the “Odds Are Alabama” campaign, an initiative to alert people to the risks of fentanyl and direct them to information and help. The name of the campaign is based on a study by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that found that 60 percent of fake pills seized by the DEA contained a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl.

Lauren Littlefield, 29, of Pike Road, drove the message home by sharing her family’s tragedy. Littlefield’s brother, Chase Ray, lost his life to fentanyl last April. Chase was 18 and an all-around athlete at Escambia Academy in Atmore.

“He loved football and being outside and just spending time with his family,” Littlefield said. “He was a great baseball player, great football player and just a really good kid.”

“He took something that a co-worker, someone that he trusted, had given him and was just being a curious 18-year-old boy,” Littlefield said. “It was laced with fentanyl and changed our lives forever.”

Nationally, more than 150 people die from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl every day, according to Vital Alabama, which is a partner in the Odds are Alabama campaign and cited statistics from the CDC, DEA, and Alabama Department of Public Health. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. A lethal dose is about two milligrams, equivalent to a few grains of salt.

Dr. Bobby Lewis, an emergency room physician at UAB Hospital, said he sees the consequences of fentanyl with regularity.

“Rarely does a day go by that we don’t see at least one or more fentanyl overdoses,” Lewis said. “And unfortunately we see several deaths per week from overdose. There are multiple things that folks take on the streets, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin. But by far the biggest problem is the fentanyl.”

In Jefferson County alone, about 400 people died of overdoses in 2021, an increase of one-third over the previous record of 302 in 2020, and fentanyl was a cause in more than three-fourths of the deaths. According to the CDC, 107,375 people died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022. Of those, 67 percent involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Fentanyl is produced commercially for pharmaceutical purposes and clandestinely for illegal purposes. It was developed to manage pain for cancer patients. Clandestinely-produced fentanyl is primarily made in Mexico. Illicit drug sellers add fentanyl to street drugs like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana and prescription drugs such as Xanax and Adderall, officials say.

“Everyone who takes non-prescription, non-pharmacy supplied medications is at risk, no question,” Lewis said. “Because these drug dealers make pills that look just like prescription pills. But they don’t have a quality control. Younger people who are naïve to the medications are also extremely susceptible. They have no tolerance. So just one little, extra bit of fentanyl is all it takes.”

Lewis said the assumption when people hear about overdose deaths is that the victims are drug addicts. But that is not always accurate.

“Someone who is naïve who is taking these, and they get a little sample of this or a pill from one of their friends, can end up dying just from one single dose of this,” Lewis said. “And even though we like to think our family, our friends, our kids, our grandkids are all safe, if they are out mixing with these people and sampling these drugs, they are not safe at all. It only takes one time with many of these people who are naïve to narcotics to die.”

Tragedies that officials blame on fentanyl have become familiar stories. Last July, Jakari Givens, 26, a Birmingham native and Miles College graduate, died after taking a Percocet pill that contained 11 milligrams of fentanyl, far more than the amount that can kill. In September, Adrianna Taylor, 15, of Semmes, died from what authorities said was ingestion of pills that were possibly laced with fentanyl. In November, fentanyl was suspected in the death of one student and illness of four other students at Selma High School.

Beverly Johnson, director of prevention services for the Alabama Department of Mental Health, urged people to download the Connect Alabama app to find prevention, treatment, and mental health services and resources. Officials also want people to be aware of resources that can help prevent overdoses and save lives. Those include Naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an overdose, and fentanyl test strips, which can detect the presence of fentanyl. Johnson also wanted people to be aware of resources including the Recovery Organization of Support Specialists (ROSS) and People Engaged in Recovery (P.E.I.R.).

Littlefield said she wanted people to understand their families are not immune. “I could never have imagined that our family would have such a close experience with fentanyl or even drugs,” Littlefield said. “And we weren’t exempt from this.”

“All it takes is one time,” she said. “Chase wasn’t an addict. He was just experimenting like kids do sometimes. And he had no idea. Just took one pill one time to change our lives forever.”

The Medical Association of the State of Alabama, the Alabama Chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics, the Alabama Department of Mental Health, the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Alabama Hospital Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Scout Branding Company, and VitAL Alabama are partners in the “Odds Are Alabama” campaign.

The Alabama Legislature, in response to the fentanyl problem, will consider a bill to impose mandatory prison time for those who knowingly possess fentanyl.

Mark Jackson, executive director of the Medical Association of Alabama, said in response to a question about the bill that the “Odds Are Alabama” coalition had not discussed the legislation. “We’re not focused on the political side,” Jackson said. “We’re focusing on the educational side.”

Littlefield said she was glad to hear the legislation mentioned today and said she hoped it would pass.

Read more: As fentanyl deaths rise, Alabama officials face vexing question: More prison sentences or alternative solutions

Drug overdoses killed more than 1 person per day in Jefferson County last year, an all-time high