TEXAS, USA — Governor Greg Abbott announced two major statewide initiatives to combat the growing national fentanyl crisis and save lives in Texas during his One Pill Kills Summit in Austin on April 6, 2023 .
"The actual rate of overdose have increased significantly," Regional Director of Operations at BayMark Brittany Jones said.
"If we thought COVID was killing people, we really should look at fentanyl. We should be as alarmed as we were about COVID and making sure that we're taking the precautionary tales that we don't for that to say that we should be doing for people with this addiction," Jones added.
Abbott unveiled a new $10 million multimedia awareness initiative through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to educate Texans on how to prevent, recognize, and reverse fentanyl overdoses as part of the "One Pill Kills" campaign.
"To bring a $10 million awareness program," Retired Killeen Police Chief Charles Kimble said. "That is absolutely huge. This drug doesn't care about demographics. Anything that we can do to to curtail that number is huge."
Abbott also announced the plan to distribute 20,000 doses of NARCAN to all 254 Texas counties by the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) - in hopes that this will save lives.
"We've been saying 'Say no to drugs, say no to drugs,' and that does not work," Jones said. "What I see Governor Abbott is doing is saying, 'Hey, if we can't stop you, how can we help you? Right? How can we help save a life?' We do distribute NARCAN, and there was a shortage. I'm really happy that Governor Abbott is coming in and saying 'Hey, let me disperse this out to everyone.'"
Local addiction treatment centers say this has become a situation where people are dying left and right. According to MedMark in Waco, three out of five people who come into the clinic have fentanyl in their system as it's laced in common street drugs.
MedMark says everyone should carry NARCAN, even if you aren't in recovery because you don't know who you will come in contact with.
They encourage those who are struggling to get help, and for those who aren't directly struggling, have grace and empathy for the people around you.
"An addict is your sister, your brother, your doctors, your attorneys," Jones said. "Those are people who are struggling with addiction. Those are not the people that people just automatically assume."