The devastating impacts of synthetic opioids in the United States cannot be overstated: more than 100,000 Americans are dying of drug overdoses annually, with fentanyl as a major contributor. Health experts have called the fentanyl crisis in North America the most lethal drug epidemic in history.  

Brookings Mountain West — a partnership between UNLV and the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution — recently brought in Brookings senior fellow and policy expert Vanda Felbab-Brown to discuss with UNLV experts the impact of the fentanyl crisis in Southern Nevada. Those conversations were released this week as two episodes of the popular Brookings podcast series hosted by Felbab-Brown, The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids around the World. 

The series launched in August and takes a comprehensive look at the fentanyl crisis nationwide and around the world. In the latest episodes, UNLV faculty in health care and criminal justice discuss how they’re working to combat fentanyl abuse in our region. The goal is to provide policymakers, law enforcement leadership, and community nonprofits an inside glimpse at the obstacles to prevention, education, and treatment faced by those working on the epidemic’s front lines. 

In the first episode, From Cradle to Grave, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV faculty — associate professors Anne Weisman, director of well-being & integrative medicine,  and Sara Hunt, executive director of BeHERE Nevada — describe how the opioid crisis affects Nevadans, from young children to older adults, as well as the already overburdened health care system. 

“Las Vegas and Nevada have certainly been experiencing many issues with the opioid crisis,” says Hunt, citing the National Survey on Drug Use which reports that about 4% of Nevada’s population is reflected in opioid misuse prevalence data — a rate higher than the national average and those in neighboring Mountain West states.

And it’s on the rise. In 2022, 836 Nevadans died from unintentional fatal drug overdose, a 6% increase over  2021. The implications of these deaths can be devastating, the experts said. 

“Each person that dies from this, they’re leaving behind loved ones, … not to mention the loss of potential that their human life had and the memories that they could have made and the contributions to this community,” says Weisman. Furthermore, the crisis has “completely overwhelmed coroners and medical examiner offices across the nation and the globe.” 

Hunt notes that the situation is exacerbated by Nevada’s significant shortage of mental and behavioral health professionals to meet the needs of those with substance use disorders seeking treatment — a challenge she and her colleagues are working to address through the BeHERENV initiative’s mental and behavioral health professional education, retention and expansion program.  

The second episode, Young People, Fentanyl Use, and Juvenile Justice System, features criminal justice professor Alexis Kennedy and Dr. Lisa Durette, an associate professor who chairs the Kerkorian School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. 

Kennedy outlines the link between juvenile delinquent behaviors and opioid use, how the drugs contribute to mental health issues, and how support programs and other interventions can help keep juveniles out of the correctional system. 

“By the time young people end up in the juvenile justice system, arguably our society has already failed to notice some of the warning signs,” says Kennedy.  She cited research showing that 84% of arrested youths and over 90% of trafficked children report having used illegal drugs.

Durette, who also serves the director of UNLV’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program, speaks to the complexities of responding to experimentation during the teenage years, analyzing warning signs of possible addiction, and the differences between opioids and fentanyl versus rapid-onset drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamines. Mixing  synthetic opioids with stimulants and other drugs further complicates policy and health responses, she says. 

“Fentanyl and the synthetic opiates are being adulterated into some of the other drugs of abuse that we’re seeing on the streets,” says Durette. “We’ve seen patients who believed that they were using methamphetamine, had come in for methamphetamine intoxication, and yet their drug screens are coming up positive for fentanyl.” 

To listen to the podcast episodes, access The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids Around the World on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.