Michal lives in a small town south of Gdansk. Because of the stigma surrounding people with addiction, he prefers to remain anonymous. Every two weeks, he travels to Swieciec to take methadone, a substitute drug, at the addiction clinic of the psychiatric hospital.

After using various drugs, he started taking fentanyl, the strongest of all opiates. Fentanyl is used to treat people with severe pain and as an anesthetic. Addicts remove the gel from pain patches and inject it directly into their bloodstream.

There have been dozens of fatal overdoses in Poland. Michal has also lost one of his close friends. Corrupt pharmacists are believed to have sold large quantities of fentanyl patches to dealers. The authorities have since put a stop to this.

In Zuromin, Jadwiga Karpinska lost her son Pawel to a fatal overdose. Their town, a two-hour drive from the capital Warsaw, was known as the country's unofficial fentanyl capital in 2024. That changed when police detained a well-known local dealer. The drug continues to be available there, but in smaller quantities.

Elementary school teacher Adam Ejnik believes in prevention. He wants to keep his students away from the drug by raising awareness about its dangers.

Artur from Lodz has managed to get off fentanyl. A few years ago, he was so addicted, he had lost the will to live. Today, his girlfriend Agnieszka helps him stay clean. His goal: he hopes to finish his psychology degree and work as a therapist to help other addicts get off the extremely powerful drug.