COLUMBUS, Ohio — After two Ohio State University students died of an overdose from taking what they thought was Adderall, officials are asking everyone to be cautious of fentanyl-laced drugs. 

A similar tragedy led a group of students to create the SOAR Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of overdose deaths.

What You Need To Know

  • The SOAR initiative launched an app that allows people to anonymously report drugs that are contaminated with fentanyl or what they call "bad batches"

  • You can describe the drug the day that it was bought, and then the location or where it was bought

  • The organization has plans to expand the app for use across the state of Ohio and hopes to eventually serve the entire country

“So when we heard (about the overdoses), we were all shocked. All of us had sort of different connections to the overdose crisis. Some of us had family members who were affected," said Pranav Padmanabhan, executive director of the SOAR Initiative, an organization that focuses on harm reduction—a set of practices aimed at reducing negative consequences of drug use.

“We're not going to end all the risks that are out there in the world," said Padmanabhan. "But we want to make sure that everyone who's engaging in these behaviors, do so as safely as possible.”

The SOAR initiative launched an app that allows people to anonymously report drugs that are contaminated with fentanyl or what they call "bad batches."

"You can describe [the drug] the day that it was bought, and then the location or where it was bought," said Padmanabhan. "We're looking for more of like neighborhood and intersection level because we don't want to put any certain person at risk.”

The SOAR initiative also helps supply fentanyl test strips and other supplies, “so anyone in Ohio can request test strips to be sent to their address in a discreet package.”

Padmanabhan said they can't prevent all overdoses, but they can help reduce the number, little by little.

"The most vulnerable to overdose are adults using things that they don't expect to be laced with fentanyl," Padmanabhan said. "They also like have a much lower tolerance to opioids.”

The organization has plans to expand the app for use across the state of Ohio and hopes to eventually serve the entire country. 

Ohio has the fourth-highest drug overdose death rate in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, Ohio documented more than 5,200 deaths.