Whittier Well-Being Initiative

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Drug Awareness: Fentanyl, Fake Pills & Mental Health

What is the “Whittier Well-Being Initiative?”

The City of Whittier has established a collective of local partners committed to increasing awareness and educating the public on the rising threat of fentanyl and counterfeit pills in our community, hosting informative workshops for parents and teens, and leveraging joint resources on substance abuse, recovery, and mental health resources designed to support and enhance the lives of residents and their loved ones.

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl can be injected, snorted/sniffed, smoked, taken orally by pill or tablet, and spiked onto blotter paper. Illicitly produced fentanyl is sold alone or in combination with heroin and other substances and has been identified in fake pills, mimicking pharmaceutical drugs such as oxycodone.

Learn more: Facts About Fentanyl

More about fake pills:

Criminal drug networks are mass-producing fake pills and falsely marketing them as legitimate prescription pills to deceive the American public.
Fake pills are easy to purchase, widely available, often contain fentanyl or methamphetamine, and can be deadly.
Fake prescription pills are easily accessible and often sold on social media and e-commerce platforms, making them available to anyone with a smartphone, including minors.
Many fake pills are made to look like prescription opioids such as oxycodone (Oxycontin®, Percocet®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), and alprazolam (Xanax®); or stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall®).
DEA laboratory testing has found that, of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed in 2022, six out of ten now contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl (an increase from four out of ten as previously reported in 2021).

View: Counterfeit Pills Fact Sheet

Watch: What is a Fentapill? https://youtu.be/f8GZ264ND78