Florida teens lack awareness of fentanyl dangers

Posted 2/3/23

A new survey conducted by the Incubate Foundation of high school students throughout Florida has revealed an alarming lack ...

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Florida teens lack awareness of fentanyl dangers

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A new survey conducted by the Incubate Foundation of high school students throughout Florida has revealed an alarming lack of awareness about the life-threatening danger of fentanyl.

The survey asked 320 teens if someone at their school had discussed the dangers of fentanyl with them, to which 7 in 10 said no (70.6%).

Meanwhile, 71,238 Americans died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021 (most recently available data - CDC) - 195 people per day.

Half of Florida teens (50.9%) said they had not heard of counterfeit Xanax ("xanny"), Percocet ("perc") or OxyContin ("oxy") pills being made with fentanyl.

Meanwhile, the DEA has reported that more than one in four pills are made with fentanyl.

Nearly three in four teens (71.3%) said they had heard or seen references to Xanax ("xanny"), Percocet ("perc"), or OxyContin ("oxy") in music or social media.

You can find examples of references to these drugs in music below:

Artist: Drake
Song Title: Sicko Mode

Lyric: “I did half a Xan, thirteen hours 'til I land”
This song has 1.7 BILLION listens on Spotify alone.

Arist: Kodak Black
Song Title: Super Gremlin
Lyric: “I knew the Perc was fake, but I still ate it ‘cause I’m a gremlin”

This song was on The Billboard 100 for 42 weeks straight.

This song glorifies not just “Perc” (percocet), but fake percocet (i.e. one pill can kill).

Artists: Future & Lil Wayne
Song Title: Oxy 
Lyric: “20mg that’s my dose”
This 3-minute song mentions “OxyContin” 63 times.

The survey illustrates why young people continue to perish from this poison: They are woefully unaware of the danger of lethal fentanyl.

That’s why the Incubate Foundation is launching Not Even Once (NEO), a statewide in-school assembly series by young Floridians for young Floridians. High-impact, 20-minute assemblies will be held at urban, rural, and tribal schools throughout Florida with one goal: inform and warn students about lethal fentanyl.

NEO is an initiative of the Incubate Foundation, which runs Incubate Debate. Incubate Debate hosts no-cost debate tournaments, workshops, and camps where students build knowledge, confidence, and an appreciation for our nation’s constitution and democracy.

Incubate's overarching goal is to empower young people to do extraordinary things, and it can’t do that when fentanyl is killing countless young Floridians.

In February 2022, Incubate founder James Fishback spoke alongside Attorney General Ashley Moody about teen fentanyl use on the “Save Our Kids” round table. In March 2022, he was invited to speak on the same topic alongside Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak in Las Vegas, NV.

Incubate Debate, Not Even Once

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