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America has an opioid problem. It’s been well reported for the past decade that deaths across the country soared because of opioid addiction and overprescription, but recent years have also seen another problem: Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, is being mixed into street drugs and has now become the leading cause of drug-related deaths. To those working at the forefront of the epidemic, drug safety (not abstinence)—like carrying Narcan to halt an overdose or testing drugs before using them—is the most viable way to impact the current problem.
Brian Bordainick, the man behind the acne-destigmatization brand Starface and emergency-contraception company Julie, agrees and is joining the movement to remove the shame around drug safety with the brand Overdrive, which launches today on Amazon.
“Harm-reduction and drug-safety products have become more accessible, with steps like moving naloxone [the generic name of Narcan] over the counter and legalizing drug test strips in nearly every state,” Bordainick says. “Yet despite these advances, adoption remains low because these products often fail to resonate with the people who need them most. I wanted to take what we have learned in our other businesses—addressing stigmatized issues like acne, sexual health, or smoking cessation—and learn from those outside the typical consumer-packaged-goods-marketing model with an eye toward entertainment and media to discover new ways of engaging people.”
Overdrive’s first product is a reliable fentanyl test kit (five strips, accompanying water packets, and mini spoons) that can detect the presence of the drug, helping those who would already be using the drug understand if it’s safe or not.
“Our brand is intentionally trying to feel more like an energy-drink brand and less like a sterile medical brand,” says Ryan Weaver, the brand’s executive producer and creative lead. It’s a strategy already implemented with huge success with Julie, whose first commercial was written by cool-girl comedian Esther Povitsky.
Bordainick and Weaver carefully thought out all of the details surrounding Overdrive’s launch. Take the launch on Amazon, which is an easy and anonymous way for shoppers to get the brand in their hands seamlessly (and quickly). The brand is also partnering with the nonprofit End Overdose and donating 1% of revenue through both cash and product.
“In order to really tackle this problem in its entirety, it’s going to take a variety of different approaches,” Bordainick says. “This doesn’t make what others are doing in the harm-reduction community wrong, but it does open the door to the fact that there is a diverse group of people being impacted by this crisis, and we need to have organizations tackling this from their vantage points.”
