US authorities seized more fentanyl in 2022 than enough to kill the entire US population, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said Tuesday, recalling the deadly danger posed by this artificial opioid.
The DEA said it seized 50.6 million counterfeit prescription drug pills containing fentanyl and 4.5 tons of fentanyl powder during the year. This is the equivalent of “more than 379 million potentially fatal doses,” she estimated.
Fentanyl, which accounted for only a small fraction of overdose deaths a decade ago, is now “the deadliest drug threat in the country,” the agency says. .
“It is a highly addictive artificial opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, the small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, is considered a potentially lethal dose,” he stated.
It is the main reason behind the more than 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States from July 2021 to June 2022, according to official data.
More in demand than heroin
Cheap and relatively easy to manufacture, fentanyl has supplanted prescription opioids and heroin in the illegal drug market.
According to the DEA, the main suppliers of fentanyl to the United States are the Mexican cartels of Sinaloa and Jalisco.
Its fentanyl is made in Mexico with chemicals “mainly from China,” he said.
Some are distributed in the form of counterfeit prescription drugs such as Percocet, OxyContin and Xanax, according to the same source.
About 60% of the counterfeit fentanyl-containing drugs tested by the DEA contained potentially fatal doses of fentanyl.
Source: BFM TV
