Ice-T is stepping behind the digicam with Fame and Fentanyl, a two-hour A&E particular airing August 25 at 9 P.M. ET, spotlighting the lethal grip of fentanyl throughout America and the lives it continues to steal—together with these of Prince, Mac Miller, and Coolio.
The Hip-Hop icon serves as each host and govt producer of the documentary, which weaves collectively harrowing tales from grieving households, legislation enforcement officers and the music business’s most tragic losses.
The challenge goals to reveal the scope of fentanyl’s devastation and educate viewers on its deadly presence within the drug provide.
“Fentanyl, for me, got here out of nowhere. By the point I discovered concerning the drug, I had already misplaced individuals to it. It’s a poison within the drug world, and I needed to do every thing that I may to make individuals conscious of its hazard,” Ice-T mentioned in an announcement concerning the challenge. “Everybody is aware of somebody who has fallen sufferer to fentanyl.”
The movie arrives because the U.S. sees a pointy decline in overdose deaths.
In keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, drug-related fatalities dropped from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024—a 27% lower.
Opioid overdoses, together with these involving fentanyl, fell from 83,140 to 54,743 throughout the identical interval. Nonetheless, fentanyl stays the main reason for overdose deaths, accounting for almost 70% of all drug fatalities.
“These are the tales that everybody wants to listen to,” Ice-T added.
Amongst these tales are the high-profile deaths of artists who unknowingly consumed fentanyl-laced substances. Prince died in 2016 after taking counterfeit painkillers containing the artificial opioid.
Mac Miller handed away in 2018 from a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.
Coolio, greatest identified for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died in 2022 with fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine in his system.
The listing continues with Wealthy Homie Quan, who died in 2024 from a mix of fentanyl, codeine, alprazolam and promethazine.
The documentary dives into how fentanyl is usually consumed unknowingly, because it’s steadily blended with different substances.
In keeping with the Drug Enforcement Administration, 5 out of 10 tablets examined in 2024 contained a probably deadly dose of fentanyl—down from 7 out of 10 the yr earlier than.
The CDC additionally reported that overdose charges are nonetheless disproportionately excessive amongst Black, Hispanic, American Indian and multiracial populations, with the very best dying charges amongst adults over 55.
