The opioid epidemic has been gripping the US for decades, more than a million Americans

have died of drug overdoses since 1999.

Theo Kriswicky has seen the devastating effects firsthand.

On my self-admin recovery for 12 years, I started using heroin when I was 13 and I ended

up losing my fiance from an opioid overdose and it just made me want to change everything

about what I do.

Theo got clean when he was 19 and a few years later he became a paramedic.

He wanted to help fight drug overdoses.

My first ever experience is I arrived on scene to a home, a family member had called because

their son had overdosed in a bathroom.

It took us about seven minutes to get on scene and when I walked in I knew he was dead.

There's just a look, there's a feel and we did what we do, we worked him up but he died.

I always will remember that mother's cry the way she screamed and I have heard that

over and over and over again in my career in emergency services over seven years.

In the last few years, one drug has driven a surge in overdoses.

A drug that's stronger, more addictive and deadlier than other opioids.

Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is found everywhere these days, often on its own or combined with other opioids

like heroin.

Increasingly, it's also being mixed into drugs like Mali or cocaine and it's so powerful

that just a few grains of it can cause an overdose.

I think anybody that uses drugs should be considering that this may be contaminated

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