Kayla, a young woman from North Carolina, recalls her harrowing journey into fentanyl addiction, which began at the age of 18. ‘I felt amazing. The voices in my head just went silent. I got instantly addicted,’ she says. The blue pills she consumed, likely smuggled from Mexico, carried an unpredictable and deadly dose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. ‘It’s scary to think I could have overdosed and died at any moment,’ she reflects. In 2023, the U.S. witnessed over 110,000 drug-related deaths, with fentanyl driving the crisis. However, 2024 marked a turning point, as fatal overdoses dropped by 25%, saving nearly 30,000 lives. North Carolina, Kayla’s home state, led this decline with a 35% reduction in overdose fatalities, thanks to innovative harm reduction strategies. These strategies prioritize health and recovery over criminalization, offering programs like Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), which redirects substance users toward treatment and support. Kayla, now a certified nurse assistant, credits LEAD and methadone treatment for her recovery. ‘This is the longest time I’ve been clean,’ she says. Across North Carolina, over 30,000 people are enrolled in similar programs, with clinics like the Morse Clinics providing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to help patients stabilize their lives. Dr. Eric Morse, who runs nine MAT clinics, emphasizes harm reduction: ‘Even if patients still use street drugs occasionally, their survival rate increases significantly.’ However, not everyone supports this approach. Mark Pless, a Republican state representative, advocates for abstinence-based programs, arguing that medications like methadone merely replace one addiction with another. Despite such criticisms, naloxone, a life-saving overdose reversal drug, has been administered over 16,000 times in North Carolina, preventing countless deaths. Governor Josh Stein has also played a pivotal role, securing $1.5 billion from a $60 billion national opioid settlement to fund prevention, treatment, and harm reduction initiatives. Yet, challenges remain, particularly for marginalized communities and states like Nevada and Arizona, where overdose rates remain stubbornly high. Kayla’s story is one of hope and resilience, but the fight against the opioid epidemic is far from over.
‘It’s scary to think I could have died’: How Americans are coming back from fentanyl addiction
