Families Against Fentanyl launches billboard campaign
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - A nonprofit fighting against the opioid crisis has launched a billboard campaign in Los Angeles And Orange Counties in the hopes of raising awareness of the deadly drug that has become the leading cause of death for many adults in America.
"Deaths are soaring in California and across the US and our young people are at risk. It's time to treat this threat with the urgency it deserves," said Jim Rauh, founder of Families Against Fentanyl.
According to the nonprofit, their research of 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control determined that the synthetic opioid fentanyl has scourged the entire United States becoming the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. The organization added that 2021 was a dark year for California, surpassing Ohio and Florida for the most amount of fentanyl-related deaths. The report also claimed that fentanyl-related deaths in California increased 27-fold since 2015.
"We are calling for the Biden Administration to declare illicit fentanyl, and its analogs, a weapon of mass destruction and immediately establish a White House task force dedicated to the fentanyl crisis," Rauh added. "Americans deserve to know what is being done to save lives, and what is being done to uncover and stop the international manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl."
FAF also added that many of those dying from fentanyl were relatively younger, claiming over 25% of deaths were people between 25 and 34. When expanding that metric by 10 years, the organization saw that over half of all fentanyl deaths in California were people between 25 and 44.
As for the state's youth, California has outpaced the rest of the U.S. with 15 to 24-year-olds making up a significantly larger share of total fentanyl deaths compared to the rest of the country.
"This is the number one killer of our nation's young adults," said Rauh. "It is killing more and more children and young adults each year."
