TOPEKA (KSNT) - Tuesday May 7, marks Fentanyl Awareness Day. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
To help spread awareness, "Prevention and Resiliency Services" put together a special event to raise awareness of the opioid. It included multiple speaker including one person who's had his own struggles from the drug.
"It's very important to me to outreach as a person who's been around multiple overdoses and has overdosed myself many times," Fentanyl overdose survivor Cody Cotney said. "You know, I know what the severity is of this addiction and I just want to be out here for support, to show people that they can overcome this and there's means of doing so out here and all they have to do is reach out to the right people."
According to the CDC, over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to opioids like fentanyl. With these alarming numbers, PARS continues to educate the community in more ways than one.
"We have been doing a lot of work this year in the community around fentanyl," PARS Community Prevention Youth Coordinator Haley Gil said. "Educating people on the signs of a fentanyl overdose, how they can administer naloxone if someone was into an overdose. We also have fentanyl test strips at our office where people can test substances that they have gotten."
As for Cotney, he believes it's his duty to spread his message.
"I'm responsible for sharing a story of recovery and hope because of the people that I lost in the midst of this addiction," Cotney said. "I have several friends that have passed away from overdoses and it's my means of being able to make amends to them and help spread a message of recovery so I can then in return help others."
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