he thought was heroin. it was a very high level of fentanyl, as well. within the heroin. it doesn t take any of it to hardly kill ya. reporter: fentanyl and s synthetic opioids representing over 60% of the deadly overdoses from april 2020 to april 2021. did the pandemic kill matthew? no. it just intensified, i think. he was more emotionally fragile during that time. reporter: what did the pandemic do for addiction in places like kentucky? yeah, there was a clear and obvious increase in use, in overdose, in any metric you want to use. reporter: alex elswick, former opioid addict, now dedicates his life to studying, understanding, and working with the addicted and recovering at lexington s voices of hope. he says the pandemic and the isolation that came with it
PUBLISHED 8:30 PM ET Jul. 09, 2021 PUBLISHED July 9, 2021 @8:30 PM
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WASHINGTON A battle is underway in Washington over what to do about a range of illegal, synthetic narcotics known as fentanyl analogues. They have the same powerful effect as regular fentanyl, but each analogue has a slightly different chemical makeup.
That made it hard to crack down on them until the Trump administration put all of the analogues in the same banned category as heroin and LSD. But not everyone agrees that was the right move.
What You Need To Know
Debate is growing in Congress about how to handle fentanyl analogues
The University of Kentucky is sponsoring a free virtual town hall, “Undoing the Harmful Legacy of the War on Drugs: A Focus on Communities of Color,” on Thursday, Jan. 28, 1-4 p.m.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 14, 2021) The University of Kentucky is sponsoring a free virtual town hall, “Undoing the Harmful Legacy of the War on Drugs: A Focus on Communities of Color,” on Thursday, Jan. 28, 1-4 p.m.
The town hall, hosted in partnership with Voices of Hope, will identify the harmful consequences of the War on Drugs, describe the barriers to treatment and recovery faced by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) that have been exacerbated by the War on Drugs, and discuss the intersection between recovery advocacy and anti-racism activism.