District Attorney Davidson Wages War on Fentanyl

Mark Davidson, District Attorney for the 25th Judicial District, is launching a district-wide awareness effort: “Fentanyl: The Deadliest High.” The focus of the campaign will be educating the public on the extreme dangers of fentanyl, the most prevalent synthetic opioid in the United States.

“I have discovered a lack of education around the dangers and prevalence of fentanyl,” said Gen. Davidson. “Our youth are our future. It is with that in mind that we are working to raise awareness about addiction and overdose. We want this effort to be the start of the end of fentanyl and deadly drug abuse in the 25th Judicial District.”

Fentanyl is often illegally sold on the streets disguised as other drugs, such as meth, resulting in users’ unknowingly ingesting it and overdosing. A dose as small as two milligrams, roughly equivalent to the weight of four grains of sand, is considered lethal to the average person.

Tennessee is the state with the fifth-most drug overdose deaths per capita in 2020. There were 45 fatal overdoses per 100,000 residents in 2020, which is up 45 percent from 2019.

Fentanyl-related deaths have increased 582 percent in Tennessee between 2016 and 2020 – with 295 deaths in 2016 and 2,014 deaths in 2020.

While the use of fentanyl has increased, awareness of the drug’s dangers has not, particularly with teenagers and adolescents.

“I have been in law enforcement over 30 years and have never seen any drug as destructive and deadly as fentanyl. We work daily to arrest these death-dealers and remove their lethal drugs from our streets,” John Thompson said. “Through this campaign, we also hope to prevent people from ever using drugs in the first place.”

Gen. Davidson, along with John Thompson, director of the 25th Judicial District Drug Task Force, plans to educate students, parents, community leaders, and others about the dangers of this deadly drug. If you would like to schedule a presentation, please call Gen. Davidson’s office at (731) 635-5163.

To learn more about the dangers of fentanyl, please visit https://thedeadliesthigh.com/. 

If you need information about addiction treatment in your area, please call the Tennessee REDLINE at (800) 889-9789.

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