Fentanyl-related deaths up 400% since Prince’s death

“Back when the tragic events surrounding Prince’s death happened, this was, for us, the beginning of what escalated into the [opioid] epidemic that we are experiencing today,” says Raphael Mattei, Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Mattei made these comments last week in Minneapolis during a public forum in memory of Prince, put together by Prince’s cousin Charles Smith, the founder and CEO of Justice4Cuz, and his wife, Victoria. Established in 2016, Justice4Cuz’s mission is “to protect, preserve, and honor the legacy of Prince Rogers Nelson and to search for the truth about his life and unexpected passing.”

Serving as a platform to honor the life and legacy of his cousin, Smith likewise convened this public forum and panel discussion, moderated by WCCO-TV News Anchor and Reporter Esme Murphy, to better address the nation’s devastating opioid crisis. And, in particular, to talk about the scourge of the synthetic drug fentanyl that took the life of Prince a little more than eight years ago and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans since.

Fentanyl, which causes an average of one death every day in Hennepin County, is 50 times stronger than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Although fentanyl is largely produced in countries such as China and Mexico, it is estimated that currently, 85% of the drug is dealt by Americans to other Americans.

Mattei also noted that Prince’s death on April 21, 2016, was “one of the first to be caused by what we see now, which are the fake [fentanyl] pills.” Since Prince died, fentanyl-related deaths have increased by more than 400%. 

According to panelist Rick Palaia, a major in the Investigations Bureau at the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the county has already seized 6,700 grams of fentanyl in 2024. This comes out to a total of 33,199 pills, each of which contains enough fentanyl to provide a fatal dose to a human being. As Murphy noted, Hennepin County’s numbers do not include data collected by the Minneapolis Police Department.

Along with Smith, Mattei, and Palaia, other panelists included Jeremy Drucker, director of the Office of Addiction and Recovery for the State of Minnesota; Alicia House, executive director of the Steve Rummler Hope Network; and Angela Kennecke, president and CEO of Emily’s Hope and the Grieving Out Loud Podcast.

In 2018, Kennecke, a long-time broadcast journalist and award-winning investigative reporter based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was doing a story on Good Samaritan laws and overdose prevention strategies the same day she learned that her 21-year-old daughter Emily had died from fentanyl poisoning.

“I became part of a club that I never wanted to join and one that I can never leave,” Kennecke shared with the assembled audience at Pohlad Hall in the Minneapolis Central Library.

Kennecke created the nonprofit organization Emily’s Hope in honor of her daughter and to provide individuals, families, and communities with critical resources around fentanyl education, public awareness, and treatment options while having also established a Post-Overdose Response Team to “provide holistic, evidence-based care and support to those who survive an overdose.”

Emily’s Hope’s broader educational initiatives include a curriculum designed for kindergarten through 5th-grade children. “We offer this to schools for free as part of our mission,” she explains, “because we believe this conversation has to start younger and continue all the way through high school, through college and beyond.”

Drucker, appointed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in 2022 to lead the newly launched Office of Addiction and Recovery, spoke directly to some of the state’s strategies, including efforts to get Naloxone “into more and more places.” This medication can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. 

Increasing access to this life-saving medication is a big part of the work being done at the St. Paul-based Steve Rummler HOPE Network, whose namesake died of an opioid overdose in July of 2011. “In 2014, Steve’s Law was passed, also known as the Good Samaritan Law, in the State of Minnesota,” says House, who leads the organization. “This allowed anyone in the state to legally carry and administer Naloxone.”

Since then, the Steve Rummler HOPE Network has provided Naloxone education and training; worked to increase Naloxone Access Points (NAPS) across the North Star State; distributed fentanyl test strips that can detect the presence of the drug in both opioid and non-opioid pills; and developed a Naloxone toolkit for schools, among other education, outreach, and advocacy initiatives. 

For treatment and other supportive resources across Hennepin County, contact their Addiction and Recovery Services Unit at 612-879-3671 or visit the Minnesota Department of Human Services.