Fentanyl testing device touted as life-saving while small enough to fit in pocket

April 29 is recognized by the Drug Enforcement Administration as Fentanyl Awareness Day -- a day that Divina Diller of Venice takes seriously.

The musician and DJ says she's lost too many people to the drug.

"I've witnessed friends of mine pass away from fentanyl overdoses. And then I've even, you know, seen people like Prince and Mac Miller, people from A-list celebrity to just your local people be affected by it," Diller said.

According to the DEA, fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

"An amount the size of a grain of rice, that's-that's a lethal dose right there. That type of trace amount of fentanyl can kill someone," said Kamni Vijay, PhD, Scientific Advisory Board Member for Defent.

In an effort to save more lives, this fentanyl testing kit was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I did lose a cousin to the opioid epidemic," said Ahmad Hussain, Founder and CEO of Defent One.

Ahmad Hussain was working with diagnostics labs focusing on developing COVID tests.

He pivoted his knowledge from that pandemic to this epidemic, creating this Defent all-in-one fentanyl testing device.

"Our focus as an individual company was to cater, serve the underserved areas to increase accessibility to testing. So I think at the root of our team has always been accessibility for all," Ahmad said.

In March, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn purchased more than 3,000 of the pocket-sized devices, distributing them to local colleges and community centers.

"That 60 seconds can change your life or it can save somebody else's," Diller said.