News Published 2023.07.10 | Gena Lee

Fentanyl, a synthetic piperidine opioid drug, is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. 

This strongly potent drug has been in the rise among teenagers since 2018. According to CDC, “Monthly drug overdose deaths nearly tripled among adolescents from 2019 through the end of 2021…(and) Fentanyl was involved in 84% of the deaths.” And more than 1,500 kids under the age of 20 died from fentanyl in 2021, which is four times the scale in 2018. 

The access to this deadly drug has been getting easier and easier as local drug dealers broaden their scopes of sales through social medias. Recently, teenagers have misused the social media platforms to purchase various drugs such as Fentanyl, Ecstasy, and Methamphetamine. And this phenomenon has crossed the pacific and is currently happening in South Korea, as well. The drug suppliers are selling Fentanyl patches for $200, Methamphetamine (1g) for $650, and Ecstasy for $300, and many of the teens can easily access them as shortly as an hour in delivery. Many of the suppliers are incorporating the system of “drop-off and pick-up” as the suppliers drops off the drugs at a certain location and are leaving the buyers to pick them up at the specific location. 

And based on the circumstances, concerns regarding the teens’ misuse of drugs in South Korea soared and exasperated the situation to another level. 

This situation is not something that happens in a ocean from a far, it is happening near us right this second, and us teens feel that it is our regard to spread awareness to this issue to pacify the teens’ misuse of drugs.