Know The Facts

Hawaiʻi County and the State of Hawaiʻi overdose deaths are tracked by the Hawaiʻi Department of Health and the National Center for Health Statistics - U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). The most current State and CDC report (for the year 2023) indicates that one person in Hawaiʻi dies, on average, every 28 hours of a drug overdose (OD). On Hawaiʻi Island, there is an average of 1 OD death every 9 days; source: 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/prov-county-drug-overdose.htm. 9.24.2024. Dr. Dan Galanis, Epidemiologist, Hawaiʻi DOH. 8.5.2024. These statistics include deaths from all drugs and combinations of drugs.

 

Fentanyl is a potent opioid, 100 times stronger than morphine. A small amount, 2 mg, can kill an opioid naïve person. The fentanyl of this epidemic is not the medication used for anesthesia or prescribed for severe pain. It is illicitly manufactured in Mexico from precursor chemicals from China and other countries.

 

Fentanyl first started appearing in Hawaiʻi in 2017-18. It was increasingly found to be “laced” into other illicit drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine. Fentanyl powder has since been used to make “fake pills”: street pills that look like prescribed medications, such as oxycodone, Xanax, and others. No pill is safe unless it comes directly from a pharmacy.

 

Although methamphetamine has historically been the primary drug involved in Hawaiʻi OD deaths, fentanyl involvement has been increasing; in 2014, Hawaiʻi had 160 overdose deaths, and in 2023, there were 309. And there were 9 fentanyl deaths recorded in 2014 and 103 in 2023 Hawaiʻi DOH 8.5.24). Experts now believe that when used together, the combination is more deadly.

 

Two facts are not always stated, but worth noting:

 

• Many persons dying from fentanyl are not the expected person with long-term drug use and the chronic disease of addiction: they are experimenters – often high school and college students - and just unaware of what they are using.

 

• Death from drug overdose is not the only adverse consequence - many persons acquire mental and physical health issues from drug use and addiction, as well as social (i.e., family disruption), legal (i.e., incarceration), and other consequences (unemployment, homelessness, etc).