Waikiki fentanyl overdose cluster triggers urgent warning for young adults

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Law enforcement officials are issuing a second warning in two weeks about fentanyl.

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The latest alert is directed at young adults, warning that experimenting with drugs can be deadly.

This comes amid a recent increase in overdoses on Oahu, with 12 overdose calls made to Emergency Medical Services in less than one week.

On Friday, the Hawaii Department of Health said fentanyl-laced powder had injured five people in two separate incidents in Waikiki. The patients ranged in age from 22 to 32.

Two men and one woman were found passed out outside a bar on Lewers Street just after 1 a.m. Thursday.

Less than an hour later, and less than a quarter mile away, two more people, a man and woman, were found unconscious inside a fast food restaurant.

All five were given Narcan before EMS arrived and administered additional doses.

“To have five in the same geographic area in roughly the same time frame is very, very unusual,” said Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Jim Ireland. “We had to send five ambulances and a supervisor to those calls. These are people who are unresponsive, in some cases barely breathing.”

Warning targets young people as college resumes

Gary Yabuta with the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program said clusters are always concerning and young adults and teens are especially vulnerable.

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College is back in session for many students, and Yabuta says students congregate and sometimes experiment with drugs or prescriptions drugs they buy through social media.

“Whatever you buy on the streets or the black market online, you’re taking a chance,” Yabuta said. “You’re playing Russian roulette. You don’t know if what you think you’re buying, like for example, Xanax, Vicodin, Oxycontin, could be actually fentanyl laced.”

2023 spike in overdose cases

Fentanyl-related deaths peaked in 2023 in Hawaii with 107 deaths involving the drug.

That total included a mass overdose in Waikiki in which neighbor island residents visiting for a concert mistook fentanyl for cocaine. Two people died and three required medical treatment.

Fentanyl-related deaths dropped in 2024 and 2025, which is why officials said they were surprised by the recent cluster.

“Since Thursday we’ve seen about one or two fentanyl overdoses a day, but it’s not clear if those people knew they were doing a narcotic and overdosed on that or same situation, they thought they were doing something else,” Ireland said.

First responders are all equipped with Narcan, which saves lives, but additional doses are often needed.

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