With fentanyl, ‘Just say no’ can kill kids

Fentanyl has caused such overdoses to rise sharply despite declining drug use among young people in the United States. Recent data suggest it kills an average of 22 teens every week around the nation. In a new analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that fatal overdoses among US teens aged 14-18 hit an all-time high in 2022.

Overdose deaths are preventable. However, reducing teen overdoses requires a dramatic shift in drug-prevention programming: It needs to emphasise safety rather than abstinence alone.

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