evidence: In Wisconsin, the opioid epidemic has presented itself as three distinct waves associated with different opioid drug types. The first wave started in 1999 when opioid overdose deaths began to rise due to the over prescription of opioids (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 2021). This was followed by the second wave in 2010, marked by a rise in heroin overdose deaths. This shift from the first to the second wave is indicated by an 800% increase in the amount of heroin-overdose related hospital admissions in Wisconsin between 2003 and 2012 (Meiman et. al., 2015). This wave can be characterized as the period when previous prescription opioid users shifted to heroin use and misuse. During this time, the demographic characteristics of heroin users shifted towards Whites and people living in rural areas (Meiman et. al., 2015). 2014 marks the transition period from this second wave to the third and current wave, the synthetic crisis (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 2021). This wave is largely attributed to the illegal manufacture of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and its analogs, and their inclusion in street heroin (Scholl, 2019).