Did you know that in Collin County, Texas, fatal fentanyl poisonings increased by 1032% from 2018 to 2022? The otherwise great and safe city of Frisco, a part of Collin County, is being plagued by the use of fentanyl. It is prevalent in all areas of Frisco, especially in Frisco high schools. This affects everyone in Frisco, and will continue to affect areas outside of Frisco. 

If children are being influenced by these drugs and reaping the harmful effects of them, this problem will only spread because children are the future. Imagine what could happen if a whole age bracket of a city is exposed to drugs and that age bracket starts making the important decisions and starts playing a role in government. The entire city will suffer from not taking preventative measures to stop fentanyl.

Why now? Well, fentanyl is bigger than ever, and it will continue to grow if we do not address it. We must take all preventative measures we can and tighten our grip on the overall drug problem in Frisco in order to stop fentanyl abuse. We must employ every strategy possible to combat this horrific drug, including raising awareness and the use of Narcan to prevent opioid overdoses.

How do we raise awareness, you may ask? Well, social media and other campaigns are great places to start, but I think the majority of efforts dedicated to raising awareness should be employed in schools, as schools have a great impact on children's lives. Raising awareness can be done best by organizing events such as color coded or theme coded weeks that can have people supporting fighting fentanyl abuse wear a specific article of clothing. This could easily spread to the entire school, allowing every student to be more aware of fentanyl abuse. This approach has been tried and tested before at schools and has had positive results in supporting issues such as breast cancer. Fundraisers for fentanyl abuse victims would also cause a significant impact if paired with color/theme coded weeks.

The awareness of Narcan and its ability to reverse drug overdoses could be a great benefit if it gains traction, as more people will have access to it and can help protect themselves and the people around them. Again, the main location we should focus on to spread awareness about Narcan would be at schools. A great way to do this would be to include flyers posted at, including but not limited to, hallways, classroom doors, bathroom doors, and school entrances. Another option would be to conduct a mandatory lesson about fentanyl and Narcan in the advisory/study hall period of each respective school. These strategies would effectively communicate how important having Narcan would be.

(I am a member of the 2025 Global Youth Program by The Peace Warrior)

Sources:

Samantha Douty, Colby Farr. “Collin County Uses Education to Bring Awareness to Dangers of Fentanyl.” Community Impact, Community Impact, 3 July 2023, communityimpact.com/dallas-fort-worth/mckinney/city-county/2023/07/03/collin-county-uses-education-to-bring-awareness-to-dangers-of-fentanyl/.