The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said Tuesday that it confiscated enough fentanyl to kill every American in 2022.
The agency said that it seized more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million illegal fentanyl tablets this year, accounting for a total of some 379 million potentially lethal doses of the synthetic opioid in a year when it was responsible for thousands of deaths in the country.
According to a Washington Post investigation, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49, beating car accidents or gun violence. The rate of deaths from fentanyal have increased by 94 per cent in the last three years.
Fentanyl, which is 50 times more lethal than heroin, is often produced in labratories and either turned into tablets resembling pain pills or mixed with other drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine in order to make the substances more potent. The DEA said last month that six in 10 fentanyl pills now include lethal doses of the opioid.
Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator, laid the blame for the crisis at the feet of two Mexican drug cartels: the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.
“DEA’s top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels — the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels — that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today,” Ms Milgram said in a statement on Tuesday.
The DEA’s numbers on fentanyl do not include any fentanyl seized at the southern border this year, which falls under the jursidiction of US Customs and Border Protection. Authorities along the border detected 14,000-plus pounds of illegal fentanyl, a record, during the fiscal year that ended on September 30. Last month, border authorities seized nearly 3,000 pounds.
US officials believe they only catch five to 10 per cent of the fentanyl that comes into the country over the southern border, but the DEA’s numbers suggest that much of the fentanyl in the US is being brought into the country via other channels.
While a portion of that fentanyl is bought on US streets, the DEA also sounded the alarm about pills that are available for sale online.
“Fake pills are readily found on social media. No pharmaceutical pill bought on social media is safe,” the DEA said. “The only safe medications are ones prescribed directly to you by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist.”
