USPS Issues Fentanyl Semipostal Stamp to Fund Addiction Research

The U.S. Postal Service issued a semipostal stamp dedicated to fentanyl awareness on Tuesday, unveiling the design at a ceremony at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, with net proceeds directed to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Semipostal stamps sell for more than the First-Class single-piece rate — the current price is $1 — and by law the money left after postage and the Postal Service's reasonable costs is transferred to a designated federal agency. This one funds NIDA, which Postal Service officials described as the world's largest provider of research into substance abuse, addiction treatment and recovery support.

Where the money from the stamp goes

Peter Pastre, the Postal Service's vice president for government relations and public policy, dedicated the stamp and tied the design to the scale of the epidemic it addresses.

"Fentanyl contributes to some 80,000 overdose deaths each year, with devastating impacts to families and communities across the nation," Pastre said. "The net proceeds from this stamp will be distributed to the National Institute on Drug Abuse."

NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, who joined the dedication, framed the stamp as a public statement about the role of science in the response. "Confronting it requires the full weight of scientific inquiry, innovation and national resolve," he said. "At NIH, we are committed to funding the rigorous research needed to understand addiction, develop new treatments and save lives."

NIDA director Nora Volkow, who also spoke, said the medium itself carried meaning. "It is fitting to convey that message through a postage stamp, because stamps travel and connect one person to another," she said, describing the design as a reminder "that community matters, treatment works, recovery is possible, and nobody has to confront addiction by themselves."

A design built around connection, not pills

Postal Service art director Antonio Alcalá said he wanted the stamp to express support for people affected by fentanyl while avoiding imagery of pills, which he described as potentially triggering for people recovering from substance misuse. He recruited illustrator Whitney Sherman, who created the art for the agency's Breast Cancer Research Semipostal.

The resulting illustration places a single figure at the center, surrounded by a diverse group of supporters whose care is conveyed through posture and gaze rather than medical iconography. Sherman said the word "hope" drove the composition. "If you look at each person, they have an intention," she said. "Some are looking at us, suggesting an invitation to also be caring."

The numbers behind the dedication

Most of the roughly 80,000 annual overdose deaths in the United States involve fentanyl and other extremely potent synthetic opioids, according to the Postal Service. In 2023 the country recorded its first decline in drug overdose deaths in years, and data released in 2024 showed deaths involving fentanyl falling more than 30 percent over the prior year — a turn that public health officials have attributed to a combination of wider naloxone distribution, shifts in the illicit drug supply and expanded treatment.

Whether that decline holds is the question the stamp's proceeds are meant to help answer. Research funded through NIDA underpins much of the current clinical toolkit for opioid use disorder, including medications that reduce craving and withdrawal and studies of how people sustain recovery over years rather than weeks.

The stamp is available at Post Office locations nationwide and through the Postal Service's online store, and the agency is promoting it online under the hashtag #FentanylSemipostalStamp.