Dr. Donnie Sansom | Source | Associate Medical Director, Director of Addictions at Sierra Tucson

Oh, it could be a few seconds. Illegal fentanyl is easier to get, because it's so potent, a lot of people have figured out how to game that system and abuse it. That's the real concern. So if course they're going to keep that gravy train going as it were and that's what's driving this. And somebody offers them a drug, it's at a party, I'm going to take it. Maybe they already have a few drinks on board. And they take it in if it's fentanyl or laced with fentanyl, the respiratory depression as they described is profound for that person because they have no tolerance. And so the misconception also is that it's just a young street addict - kind of a drug - it's affecting everybody across the board.

Also, a lot of people who are suffering from addiction have other undercurrents to the addiction, trauma in their life, mood disorders, such as anxiety, depression, there may be chronic pain issues that have driven them towards opioid use that, although perhaps well intended, in the beginning, has leaned itself into an abuse issue. So we really treat the mind, body and spirit here. We treat all of the things that go into what makes us human.