A Dealer is Not a Doctor

by Vicki Harris

Fake Pill Fentanyl Awareness Campaign

Youth Group Raising Alarm Over Fentanyl-Laced Fake Pills

We are all members of Dover Youth to Youth and we are here downtown today to announce the launch of our A Dealer is Not a Doctor Campaign.

We hope to make the community aware that dealers are not qualified to provide prescriptions legally and the only safe way to get prescription drugs is from a doctor.

The goal of our campaign is aiming to raise awareness of the fact that fake pills can be dangerous because they contain harmful chemicals like fentanyl. People who take these fake pills could be unaware of some of the chemicals inside the pill. For example, someone could think they are taking Adderall, but in addition to Adderall it is laced with a deadly dose of fentanyl to increase the pill’s potency.

We feel that fake pills are a problem because they are commonly laced with other dangerous drugs like fentanyl. Fentanyl is a highly addictive opioid that is often deadly.  

Our group is also very concerned about how difficult it is to tell the difference between counterfeit pills and prescription medicine. It’s a problem when someone cannot tell if they taking a counterfeit pill because fakes are made in a dirty and unsafe environment. This causes inconsistent amounts of fentanyl in each pill, leading to the possibility of one pill having almost no fentanyl and one having more than a lethal dose.

In addition, the criminal cartels that sell these drugs to local dealers are only in it to make money, so they do not care about the potential consequences and the impact their products have on people’s health. We are also concerned about the recent trend of people believing the opioids they get on the street or from peers are the same pills as what they would get from a doctor.    

We are worried about the harm being caused by Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a prescription grade opioid that is synthetic. It is made in a lab or factory, but often times the illicitly manufactured fentanyl is made in somebody’s unsanitary backyard or basement. Only two milligrams of fentanyl, which is smaller than the tip of a pencil (refer to visual), is a potentially deadly dose. In 2023, Fentanyl caused 229 deaths in NH. More locally, last year in Dover, there were 14 deaths with the overwhelming majority being caused by fentanyl. At Dover High School, about 90 students reported taking an Rx medicine that was not prescribed to them by a doctor in the past 30 days. Additionally, about 165 students report using an Rx pain medication when not directed by a doctor at some point in their life.

We hope that this demonstration makes the community more aware of the dangers of taking prescription medications from dealers off the street who are not qualified to be a doctor.

To get this message out, we are kicking off our A Dealer is Not a Doctor campaign with the rally here today. We have teams handing out palm cards with our message and information about the campaign to pedestrians. We hope that this will draw attention to the growing issue that is counterfeit pills and fentanyl.

We feel that this is important because these are real people being harmed by the opioid epidemic, not just numbers. These are all people who had friends and family members who loved them, and are now missing them due to opioids.

Over the next year, our group will be continuing this momentum by giving presentations and webinars both to students and adults, alongside promoting Drug Take Back Day and the safe disposal and use of prescription drugs. Additionally, we will be creating media and submitting one or more videos to the annual Granite Youth Alliance Film Festival. Finally, we will handing out Detera drug disposal bags and medication lockboxes to the public.

We hope our actions this year will reduce the number of deaths and drug poisonings, as well as raising general awareness on this topic.

By taking all these steps we aim to reduce the number of deaths and drug poisonings both in our community and beyond.

Youth to Youth student Hunter Stevens said “This is important because we want our community to stay safe from fentanyl and fake pills.”

This campaign is being kicked off during Youth to Youth’s week long Summer Training Program that teaches students the knowledge and the skills they need to take action to take on the drug problem in their communities. Over 40 of both experienced and new students from Dover are participating in the training program this week.

Dover Youth to Youth was assisted in the preparation of this campaign by staff from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) assigned to New Hampshire. DEA staff provided training presentations and training materials that the students could use in the development of this campaign.

Dover Youth to Youth is an after school drug prevention effort coordinated by the Dover Police Department with support from Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. For more information on this issue, or Dover Youth to Youth in general, please call 603-516-3274. More information is also available at the Dover Youth to Youth website at www.DoverY2Y.org.      

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