The opioid overdose crisis has had a heavy impact on people living in the United States and has resulted in many preventable deaths across Minnesota and the rest of the nation. Because the opioid epidemic has reached all of our communities, it is important to learn ways that we can prevent additional opioid overdoses.
What is addiction?
Substance use disorder (SUD), commonly called addiction, is a chronic disease like diabetes, high blood pressure or asthma. Drug addiction, another name for substance use disorder, is a disease that affects the structure of the brain and people’s behavior.
Addiction is not a matter of personality, willpower or weakness. Anyone can become addicted. Experimenting with recreational drugs or prescribed pain medication can lead to drug dependence or addiction.
What drugs are opioids?
Legal drugs used to reduce pain include:
Oxycodone
Hydrocodone
Codeine
Morphine
The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid, along with fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioids.
Why is it so hard to stop using these opioids?
Some people's brains are more susceptible to addiction, making it harder to quit using.
What are opioids?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines opioids as a class of drugs that include legal drugs to reduce pain.
Prescription opioids are generally safe when used for a short time and as prescribed by a clinician. People can become addicted to both prescription opioids and illegal opioids. Both legal and illegal opioids can lead to drug dependence, addiction, overdose and death.
Misusing opioids can include not following instructions from your doctor, taking pills that are not prescribed for you or taking opioids to get high.
How do they work?
Opioids travel through the blood and attach to receptors in the brain. Opioids can block pain, cause sensations of pleasure like calmness or happiness, and slow heart and breathing rates.
Misusing opioids can include not following instructions from your doctor, taking pills that are not prescribed for you or taking opioids to get high.
Watch our video What is opioid addiction? to learn more.
How do you know if you are addicted to opioids?
The signs and symptoms of addiction can be physical, behavioral and psychological. The Mayo Clinic describes symptoms of drug addiction as the following:
- Continuing to use increased amounts of the drug to achieve the same effect.
- Continuing to use the drug, even though it is harming your physical and mental health.
- Engaging in risky behaviors such as driving or stealing when under the influence of the drug
- Avoiding social activities or missing work.
- Interfering with relationships.
- Using most of your time to get the drug, use the drug, or recover from the effects of the drug.
- Struggling with your attempts to stop using the drug.
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Is it dangerous to mix opioids with other drugs?
Mixing opioids with other drugs can cause dangerous side effects including:
- difficulty breathing
- coma
- brain damage
- death
If you are taking prescription pain medications, do NOT take the following without first talking to your health care provider:
- Alcohol, including beer, wine and liquor.
- Antihistamines, including allergy medications such as Benadryl®.
- Cough medicine/cough syrup.
- Barbiturates, benzodiazepines (often used as sleeping pills and sedatives, such as Ambien®, Xanax®, and Valium®), and other drugs that cause sedation or respiratory depression.
- General anesthetics (often used for surgery).
Xylazine and fentanyl
People use often use xylazine with fentanyl to make the effect of fentanyl stronger and longer. However, the risk of an overdose and death is extremely high with this drug combination. While naloxone may reverse a fentanyl overdose, it may not have an effect when fentanyl is used with xylazine.
What is xylazine?
Xylazine is not an opioid which means that naloxone does not reverse its effects.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is warning the public about a troubling increase in the use of xylazine in combination with fentanyl. This combination can cause both overdoses and wounds that may need care in a hospital.
Xylazine (also known as "Tranq") is a sedative that vets use when treating horses and cows. Xylazine causes a decrease of oxygen and blood flow in the skin. With less oxygen and blood, wounds have trouble healing which may result in infection. Eventually, xylazine use can result in necrotic (or rotting) wounds.
Xylazine is not an opioid which means that naloxone does not reverse its effects.
What is fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is roughly 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than some forms of heroin.
- Other illicit drugs can be laced with fentanyl, unknown to the user. This can cause unintentional overdoses because fentanyl is so potent.
- Fentanyl test strips (FTS) can help prevent drug overdose deaths by identifying substances that contain fentanyl before they are used.
Fentanyl and harm reduction training
To learn more about fentanyl and harm reduction approaches, complete our fentanyl mini-course. Upon completing this mini-course, you will be able to:
- Explain the difference between fentanyl/fentanyl analogs and other types of opioids
- Explain why overdose risk is higher when illicit fentanyl is involved
- Explain how harm reduction methods can reduce the risk of overdose related to fentanyl.
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Overdose Statistics
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) website provides detailed drug overdose statistics through its Drug Overdose Dashboard. This dashboard includes data on opioid overdose deaths, nonfatal overdoses, opioid prescriptions dispensed, youth substance use and misuse, and more.
Reviewed in 2025