Alaska officials have announced a new awareness campaign aimed at highlighting and combating the growing danger of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan announced the “One Pill Can Kill” campaign at an Anchorage news conference Monday. Sullivan said that Alaska’s 40 percent increase in drug deaths from 2022 to 2023 was larger than any other state.
“Alaska is under attack,” Sullivan said. “In 2023, opioids killed more Alaskans than ever before.”
More than 340 Alaskans died from an overdose last year, and state health officials say about three out of every four deaths were due to fentanyl. Last year, state troopers seized 721 pounds of illegal drugs, including about 183 pounds of fentanyl.
“That is potentially 41-and-a-half million potential overdose deaths,” said Capt. Cornelius Sims with the Alaska State Troopers’ statewide drug enforcement unit.
RELATED: Alaska targeted by drug traffickers seeking higher profits, authorities say
Dunleavy said the campaign will focus on educating Alaskans about the risks of fentanyl and how prevalent it is in the state, as well as resources available for people struggling with substance misuse. He said he’s hopeful that the state will reach as many Alaskans as possible.
“We’re going to check our protocols to see what additional things we need to do with outreach,” Dunleavy said. “The social media platforms have evolved immensely in the last couple of years as well. So we’ll be having that conversation as well.”
Part of the funding for the campaign comes from the $58 million settlement the state received from several major pharmaceutical companies.
During the news conference, Dunleavy also pushed for legislators to pass House Bill 66, a bill he sponsored that would increase the penalty for drug dealers selling fentanyl from manslaughter to second-degree murder.
“If your activity has baked into it the death of innocent Alaskans, you need to be prepared to pay the consequences,” Dunleavy said.
State lawmakers have until midnight on May 15 to pass the bill during the regular legislative session.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
