Just off the Las Vegas Strip, a new billboard stacked with faces and names of people lost to fentanyl is stopping cars and conversations. Families gathered along Paradise Road on Monday night to honor loved ones who died from fentanyl and to warn that the crisis cuts across age, race and neighborhood lines. The photos, a mix of teenagers and middle-aged adults, are meant to challenge the idea that overdose victims fit any single stereotype.
Families Stage A Roadside Vigil
At the roadside ceremony, Jenny Howard, who lost her son, Gage, told reporters, "Nowadays, you don't know what you're getting on the street, and they're pressing fentanyl into so many things." According to Howard, the people featured on the billboard range in age from 14 to 47, a span organizers say underscores how overdoses reach across every demographic. Standing nearby to remember her two sons, Laurie Edlinger put it bluntly: "Their lives matter."
The billboard project was organized in partnership with family groups and advocates determined to make overdose losses visible to the public, rather than just another line in a data report, as reported by KSNV.
Health Officials Point To Rising Deaths
Senior epidemiologist Brandon Delise said fentanyl remains the primary driver of overdose deaths in Clark County. The county recorded about 193 fentanyl-related deaths in 2020 and 421 in 2025, after a high point of around 454 in 2024. Those figures, shared in preliminary Epi Aid findings, have become the backbone of local analysis and planning.
The trend has pushed the Southern Nevada Health District to expand outreach and research to better track where fentanyl is showing up and who is being hit the hardest, as reported by FOX5.
What Officials And Groups Are Doing
The Southern Nevada Health District runs an anonymous drug-sample testing program to monitor whether fentanyl is present in local street supplies and offers free naloxone and fentanyl test strips at its pharmacies with no questions asked. The agency also partnered on a canvassing push that knocked on nearly 53,000 doors in neighborhoods with higher rates of fatal overdoses, handing out overdose-prevention materials directly to residents.
Officials say these measures, along with the district's public substance-use dashboard, are all meant to get naloxone, testing tools and real-time information into the places where they can do the most good, as detailed by Southern Nevada Health District.
Why The Billboards Matter
Advocates say public memorials like this one are intentionally hard to ignore. The faces on the sign force a different kind of attention and make the losses tougher to dismiss as distant statistics. Howard said she hopes the billboard persuades at least one person to think twice before using drugs. Organizers add that visibility can help grieving families find each other, build support networks and nudge more people to carry naloxone.
The billboard campaign sits alongside expanding naloxone distribution and testing programs that aim to drive down overdose deaths across Clark County, as reported by KSNV.
