On a crisp December morning in my small Southern hometown, my mother found my brother unresponsive in his bed. When law enforcement officers arrived, they performed testing to confirm fentanyl overdose was the cause of death. When the test turned positive, they informed my parents that it was unsafe to enter my brother’s room. It was unsafe for us to breathe the air in the room of someone who died “that way,” we were told. And as a physician who cares for patients who use fentanyl, I knew these claims were incorrect.

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Persons: overdosed Locations: Southern