On Tuesday, Apr. 29th, PEER is hosting their purple-out event to raise awareness about Fentanyl and its consequences. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to treat severe pain. Fentanyl is also used as a controlled substance that is similar to morphine, but about 100 times more potent. However, while this is a prescribed drug, there are a lot of fake fentanyl pills being spread. These pills are usually combined with other illicit drugs to increase their potency and are illegally sold. While it can look just like prescribed fentanyl, these fake pills are easy to get addicted to and take the lives of thousands of Americans each year. In 2023, over 74,000 deaths were registered to overdoses of synthetic opioids like fentanyl. In order to prevent these overdoses, raising awareness on this issue is important. For this reason, PEER will hold a table outside of the cafeteria to help educate students on the dangers of synthetic opioids, while handing out goodies to everyone who participates and wears purple on that day.
“I wore purple on Tuesday, because I think it’s a really important issue to raise awareness on,” junior Emma McCallister said. “I stopped by the PEER table outside the cafeteria to participate, as well.”
