Families Against Fentanyl Launches Billboards in Chicago, Urges Leaders to Address Fentanyl Crisis
August 21st is National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day
Fentanyl Billboards and PSA Campaign Greet DNC Attendees - Photo and Video available for media download here
Chicago, IL – Families Against Fentanyl has launched a new billboard and public service campaign in Chicago as President Biden, Vice President Harris and an estimated 50,000 political leaders gather in the city for the Democratic National Convention. This Wednesday August 21st is National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day. Families Against Fentanyl is also has a public service awareness video with a similar message.
With more than 60 billboard locations throughout Chicago, the fentanyl awareness campaign is expected to be seen over 900,000 times over the course of the week. The billboards feature stark red lettering on a black background with a simple message for our nation’s leaders: “Fentanyl is a Weapon of Mass Destruction”. Alongside the text is the haunting image of a single human skull, representing the unprecedented loss of human life because of the fentanyl crisis in the United States. The effort is part of Families Against Fentanyl ongoing effort to raise awareness of the fentanyl crisis and urge political leaders on both sides of the aisle to prioritize the crisis. FAF also ran these billboards in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.
In 2023, Illinois suffered the seventh highest number of fentanyl deaths in the nation compared to other states, with over 2,700 deaths from fentanyl or similar synthetic opioids, per CDC data. Nationally, drug deaths remained above 100,000 for the third year in a row in 2023, driven largely by illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids which were involved in approximately 75,000 deaths last year. Fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed in the last decade. Fentanyl deaths in 2023 were more than double those just four years earlier in 2019, according FAF's analysis of CDC data.
“As we mark National Fentanyl Awareness Day, we urge leaders on both sides of the aisle to commit to aggressive action to stop the flow of illicit fentanyl into the United States and save American lives,” said Jim Rauh, founder of the national awareness group Families Against Fentanyl. “The fentanyl crisis should be the phrase on everyone’s lips. Fentanyl poisoning is the number one killer of Americans 18-45. We are losing 200 people a day to this poison – that’s a death every 7 minutes. Unsuspecting Americans are being wiped out at an unprecedented rate. Enough is enough, We need leaders of both political parties to prioritize stopping the poisoning of the American people.”
“Every seven minutes on average, another family like mine is losing a love one to illicit fentanyl and experiencing gut-wrenching, life-altering grief. There is no bigger calling for today’s leaders than stopping the number one killer of our young people,” added Rauh, whose son Tommy was killed by fentanyl shipped from China directly to a dealer in Ohio.
More than 80,000 people have signed on to FAF’s petition calling for the US to designate illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Bipartisan leaders including former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former CIA Director John Brennan joined with Families Against Fentanyl to warn of the threat posed by illicit fentanyl and urged President Biden to designate illicit fentanyl and its analogues as weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The bipartisan Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking found that illicit fentanyl is a “slow-motion weapon of mass destruction” with devastating loss of life and economic impact on the United States.
“More Americans died of fentanyl poisoning last year than died in the entire twenty plus years of the War on Terror. We are experiencing losses equivalent to two 9/11 attacks every month. Illegal fentanyl is a weapon of mass destruction, and its death toll will continue to devastate families like mine across the country unless America takes bold action. The U.S. must do more to find the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl and stop shipments before this poison reaches our streets. We urge the leaders of both political parties to pledge to declare illicit fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction and immediately establish a White House task force dedicated to the fentanyl and drug poisoning crisis if elected," stated Rauh.
Almost all illicit fentanyl is manufactured outside the United States before it is slipped into knock-off prescription pills and street drugs, killing unsuspecting Americans. Formally declaring illicit fentanyl a Weapon of Mass Destruction will empower the federal government to engage agencies and resources thus far underutilized in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic, putting cartels on notice and saving American lives. Bipartisan national security officials have also joined with FAF to warn that iIllicit fentanyl is also a chemical weapon that poses a very real threat in the wrong hands. The growing prevalence of fentanyl heightens the potential for this deadly drug to be repurposed by terrorists or cartels as a chemical weapon in a mass-casualty event.