Authorities in the United States have seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill the entire population of the country, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Tuesday, warning of the deadly danger posed by this synthetic opioid.
The drug agency said it had seized 50.6 million counterfeit fentanyl-containing pills and 4.5 tons of fentanyl powder this year.
The material seized amounts to “more than 379 million potentially fatal doses,” the DEA said.
Fentanyl, which accounted for only a small fraction of overdose deaths a decade ago, is now “the deadliest drug threat in the country,” he noted.
“It is a highly addictive synthetic opioid and 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,” the DEA said.
This drug is the main cause of more than 107,000 overdose deaths in the United States, between July 2021 and June 2022, according to official data.
Inexpensive and relatively easy to manufacture, fentanyl has overtaken 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.
The cartels’ fentanyl is made in Mexico with chemicals that come “mainly from China,” the agency said.
Some are distributed in the form of counterfeit drugs, such as Percocet, OxyContin and Xanax, according to the same source.
About 60% of the counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl tested by the DEA contained life-threatening doses of the synthetic drug.
In 2019, the Department of Homeland Security was already considering classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, given its “high toxicity and the increasing availability of the drug.”
Source: TSF
