The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey launched a campaign to raise awareness for fentanyl and its dangers.

In response to the number of drug overdose deaths reaching over 3,000 in New Jersey, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey launched a campaign to raise awareness of the “fentanyl outbreak” across the state.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid much stronger than heroin, has been getting mixed in with heroin and is a large part of why the number of overdoses have increased, officials said.

“Fentanyl has become the deadliest drug in the opioid epidemic that is tragically impacting so many New Jersey families and communities,” said Angelo Valente, Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey executive director. “It is vital that New Jersey residents are aware of the dangers of fentanyl and understand its deadly effects.”

About half of the 3,163 overdose deaths in 2018 involved fentanyl, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.

In 2017, 1,379 out of 2,750 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, according to data from the New Jersey Attorney General’s NJ CARES program.

In Burlington County in 2017, 87 out of 150 drug-related deaths involved fentanyl and its analogs. That’s up dramatically from 23 out of 96 deaths in the county in 2016, and 818 out of 2,221 in the state that year. In 2012, just four of Burlington County’s 67 drug-related deaths involved fentanyl, while there were 42 out of 1,223 deaths across the state.

“It’s a big problem all over the Northeast,” Sharon Joyce, director of NJ Cares, said in an interview in December. “The fentanyl makes the likelihood of overdose much more. It’s not as responsive to the single doses of Narcan, (and) people are having to use more Narcan to deal with it.”

That’s why the partnership decided it was necessary to launch the awareness campaign, which will include signs on buses, trains, billboards and on websites of law enforcement offices to highlight the danger a small amount of fentanyl can cause. The images will show a small sugar packet with a message that says, “The amount of fentanyl that can fit in this packet can kill hundreds of people.”

Raising awareness for fentanyl abuse has become a part of local prevention efforts in Burlington County, said Joe Conlin, a coordinator with Prevention Plus.

Conlin, who runs two coalitions in his role — the county-wide Burlington County Healthy Communities Coalition and the Riverfront Coalition that focuses on Burlington City and Burlington Township — said fentanyl is a major concern to both groups.

“We include information and the dangers of fentanyl in my drug trends presentation,” he said Thursday. “We have recently added carfentanil — the elephant tranquilizer. We also talk about how fentanyl is pressed into pill form and smuggled in.”

Valente said these efforts will help keep people better informed and safer.

“This campaign will arm New Jersey residents with crucial information on fentanyl to make the best decisions to help keep their families and communities safe,” Valente said.