Governor Gina Raimondo set a goal in 2015 to reduce the number of accidental drug overdose deaths by one third in three years, but since then a potent and sometimes lethal opioid has emerged, making it impossible for the state to reach the objective.
Last year, Raimondo signed an executive order to form the Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force and appointed her senior advisor Tom Coderre to co-chair the group. He said the emergence of fentanyl means the governor's goal three years ago "will not be achieved."
"Fentanyl came into the drug stream couple of years back and it changed the trajectory of the opioid crisis," Coderre said during a taping of WPRI 12's Newsmakers. "Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than traditional opioids; even a small amount of fentanyl can increase the dose someone is receiving of opioids and cause them overdose very, very quickly."
