The Bay Area fentanyl crisis: Everything you need to know about this deadly epidemic

by Thomas Hughes, Bay City News August 7, 2023August 5, 2023

A discarded drug syringe is photographed on a San Francisco sidewalk on July 7, 2018. The Bay Area is not immune to the fentanyl crisis sweeping the nation, and San Francisco has become a hot spot for fentanyl-related overdoses as the deadly opioid is showing up more frequently in illegal street drugs. State lawmakers and health officials are working to educate the public about the dangers. (waltarrrr/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND)

THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT of Public Health and multiple Bay Area counties are seeking to educate the public about the fentanyl crisis currently hitting the state and nation. The below explainer provides answers to some basic questions about the topic, which cost nearly 6,000 lives in California in 2021.

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid. It is 50-100 times more potent than morphine and can be fatal in amounts as small as a few grains of sand, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

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