There were more than 700 middle and high school students from Douglas and Washoe Counties at the summit.

More than 700 middle school and high school students gathered for the Northern Nevada Opioid Youth Summit on Tuesday.

The summit provided some fun with a live DJ, swag bags and prizes, but warning kids of the dangers about using drugs was the central thesis to all of it.

"It's very sad what it's doing to the youth," said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge for the Los Angeles Field Division for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The summit is a part of the DEA's "One Pill Can Kill" campaign, which is a national effort to educate students and parents to raise awareness.

The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control says that about 108,000 Americans lost their lives to drugs last year. 

Nearly 70 percent of those were related to synthetic opioids and fentanyl.

According to the DEA, in Reno and surrounding areas, fentanyl is involved in more than three out of every four drug-caused deaths of people 35 and younger.

The DEA says influencing kids while they are at this age is crucial to solving this epidemic.

"What we have come to realize after doing this for a long time is we are not arresting our way out of this problem," Allen said. "We have to educate people, we have to get the word out, we have to make sure people are talking about it. Remove the stigma from it because what we are experiencing from this fentanyl epidemic is the worst we have ever seen."

Washoe County School District says this is an issue they are working to address.

"We know that what's in our community is what's in our schools," said Katherine Loudon, Director of Counseling and Social Work, WCSD.

Loudon says that this issue can spread through all education levels.

Elementary school kids could be exposed to relatives who are struggling with addiction.

She says middle school and high school students can have easy access to drugs.

"What we're finding is that students are obtaining it from friends who are getting it from others or they understand where to get it online," Loudon said.

Loudon says that she's hoping that kids having this information in advance will help them think twice before taking a drug, and to also spread the word to their classmates.

There was one special guest that had the kids screaming for joy, "Avengers" star Jeremy Renner.

Renner shared to the students the experience he had with opioids during his recovery after being run over by a snow plow.

"The most difficult thing I had to endure through all the accident and coming back from the recovery of dying was actually to get off the drugs that made me not feel pain," Renner said during his speech to the kids.

Renner said he had extreme withdrawals from the drugs, that left him shivering and crying for three days, but he said he feels talking about these issues with kids is super important.

"Especially if it's a parent, I'm a parent to an 11 year old," he explained. "I think it's key that these kids get informed and that's what I think this summit is about, maybe there's some entertainment quality to this thing but if there's information that these kids can get, I think that's key. I think that's clutch." Â