US legislation enforcement seized greater than sufficient fentanyl to kill all Americans in 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned Tuesday, underscoring the deep menace of the lethal man-made opioid.
The DEA mentioned it had captured 50.6 million pretend prescription drugs laced with fentanyl and 10,000 kilos of fentanyl powder throughout the yr, calling it the equal of “more than 379 million potentially deadly doses.”
The DEA mentioned fentanyl, which prompted solely a fraction of overdose deaths a decade in the past, is now the “deadliest drug threat facing this country.”
“It is a highly addictive man-made 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 deadly dose,” it mentioned.
It was the main motive for the greater than 107,000 overdose deaths throughout the United States from July 2021 to June 2022, in line with official knowledge.
Owing to its low value and relative ease of manufacturing, fentanyl has supplanted prescription opioids and heroin within the unlawful medicine market.
The DEA mentioned the first sources of fentanyl within the United States are the Sinaloa and Jalisco Mexican drug cartels.
Their fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico with chemical compounds “largely sourced in China,” in line with the DEA.
Some of it’s distributed broadly within the type of counterfeit prescribed drugs like Percocet, OxyContin and Xanax, they mentioned.
Some 60 p.c of the counterfeit medicine laced with fentanyl that have been examined by the DEA contained doubtlessly deadly fentanyl doses, it mentioned. —Agence France-Presse
