Jelly Roll has issued a stark warning for Australia, expressing his concern over the growing fentanyl crisis in his home country.
The hitmaker has been candid in the past about his personal battles with drugs and testified before US Congress in January 2024 about the toll the drug is taking on the US.
Appearing on the Hit Network‘s Hot Hits with Nic & Loren, the Son of a Sinner hitmaker pleaded that Australia take a different path from his home country.
“Something y’all should know about is that it’s [fentanyl] sneaking into Australia very quickly – we should talk about this,” he said
Jelly Roll explained that while the source of fentanyl hasn’t reached the same scale here as in the US, it is a problem that can grow in intensity quite quickly.
“I think it’s on the lower side to the point that maybe the average Aussie is overlooking it a little bit,” the musician mentioned
Jelly Roll continued, “I preach to you as an American who now is watching this kill over 300 people a day. It’s over double the number it was when I spoke at Congress. So, think about that perspective – how fast that all happened to us.”
“Don’t look up here, my Australian brothers and sisters, and let this thing have a hold on five per cent of your country. It’ll happen so much faster than y’all think,” he further said.
The singer then spoke about his personal experience with drugs as well, adding that the illicit substances he was once addicted to do not ‘hold a candle’ to fentanyl.
“This thing is the plague, dude. I was alive for the crack era. I was alive for the pill mill era. I was alive and I was a participant in both eras,” he said
“I was a street kid – I was actively cooking and selling crack. I was the problem,” the Save Me crooner admitted.
“I was actively going to the pill mills and buying thousands of pills at a time from doctors shadily, and then going back and marking them up and putting them into the community. But none of them hold a candle to what’s in fentanyl,” Jelly Roll concluded.
