Join us at Oregon City High School on Tuesday, May 23rd at 6:30 pm for a community conversation around fentanyl. Oregon City Together is hosting this forum featuring Chris Didier from Stop the Void, and a panel of experts moderated by OCSD Board Member Michele Stroh. The panel will include law enforcement agents from OCPD and the DEA, parent who have experienced loss, and clinical counselors who specialize in drug and alcohol abuse.

More than 1.3 million counterfeit pills — most of them containing deadly fentanyl — were seized in Oregon in 2021. Kids are dying from a lack of information. 35% of American teens (ages 13-17) don’t know enough about fentanyl to rate its danger.

Fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any cause of death, including heart disease, cancer, homicide, suicide and other accidents.

However, the reality is the fentanyl crisis is even more dire than it was two years ago. Teens are purchasing what they think are Adderall, Percocet, Oxycodone and Xanax pills via social media; what they’re getting are fake pills made from the deadly and more potent synthetic drug called fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that 6 in 10 fake pills contain a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “my kid isn’t a drug addict,” know that most teens who use pills do not fit our dated notion of a drug user. Often, teens are seeking out what they think are real pharmaceutical pills to deal with anxiety or other mental health struggles. They’re not seeking out fentanyl. They don’t know that one pill can kill.

We ask that you join us in learning more by attending this forum.