CLEVELAND — May 7 marks National Fentanyl Awareness Day, and Attorney General Dave Yost released data from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation's laboratory to call attention to the drug's prevalence in Ohio. 

What You Need To Know

  • The day came to fruition three years ago by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to try to educate the public about fentanyl and its consequences

  • Last year, the DEA said more than 70,000 people across the U.S. overdosed on illegally made fentanyl

  • More than 3,500 of those individuals were in Ohio, according to Yost's Scientific Committee on Opioid Overdose and Prevention Education, otherwise known as SCOPE

The day came to fruition three years ago by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to try to educate the public about fentanyl and its consequences. It's a drug that's 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the DEA.

Last year, the DEA said more than 70,000 people across the U.S. overdosed on illegally-made fentanyl. More than 3,500 of those individuals were in Ohio, according to Yost's Scientific Committee on Opioid Overdose and Prevention Education, otherwise known as SCOPE. It monitors opioid-related deaths statewide using Ohio Department of Health data. 

Those fentanyl-related deaths in Ohio accounted for 98% of all overall opioid fatalies in the state last year, according to Yost. 

“Illegal use of fentanyl continues to wreck Ohioans’ lives, causing addiction and death,” Yost said. “Unless the pills you’re taking were prescribed by your doctor, you can’t be sure what it is – don’t risk it.”

Yost said the BCI lab has continued to process a high number of cases involving fentanyl. In the first quarter of this alone, Yost said it was the second-most "second-most-often identified substance in drug-evidence samples" after methamphetamine. 

“These numbers are frightening if you look at them as numbers,” Yost added. “They are heartbreaking when you realize they were someone’s loved ones.”

Yost said illicitly manufactured fentanyl often contains forms of fentanyl with structures that have been chemically manipulated, which makes potency and toxicity unknown. So far, the BCI said it's found 33 modified versions so far.