As the fentanyl crisis spreads across Hawaii, Honolulu police and prevention groups are increasingly focusing on efforts to reduce adolescent drug use and limit the number of accidental overdoses and deaths caused by the synthetic opioid.

NAME_1, executive director of the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii, said although less than 5% of drug abuse by adolescents in the islands involves hard drugs such as fentanyl, it is critical to reach out to teens with a drug this dangerous. So while law enforcement targets the criminals importing and selling illegal drugs, social service groups are focused on preventing adolescent drug abuse before it starts.

“If youth are in poverty, homelessness, broken homes, sometimes they start tapping into substances,” NAME_2 said. “We work with them to try and make better decisions and cope with these situations.”                                                                                                                                                                                                         Now that most coronavirus pandemic restrictions have been lifted and access to public events, areas and schools has largely returned to normal, so has the ability to find and buy illegal drugs. NAME_2 said users who buy drugs from street dealers have no way of knowing what they are really getting.

According to statistics provided by Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a grant-funded program of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the number of people who died as a result of taking fentanyl in the state has skyrocketed from nine deaths in 2018 to 48 deaths in 2021.

“We are trying to prevent them further harm, from overdosing,” NAME_2 said. “If they are expecting one drug but they get that drug plus fentanyl, those are the ones that send them over the edge and the accidental overdoses.”

Candy-Colored Pills
The Coalition For A Drug-Free Hawaii connects community groups with public and private service agencies statewide to build grassroots partnerships working to prevent drug usage and violence in communities.

It is one of several groups trying innovative ways to stem the flow of opioids being marketed to Hawaii’s young people. The organizations say they have found that the most effective way to engage adolescents is using small group sessions in safe settings, but the sudden increase in fentanyl being smuggled into the state raises pressure to increase the outreach.                                                                                         