Illegal fentanyl was singled out as a leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 by an earlier US report, with fatal overdoses of the drug surging 94 percent since 2019 and claiming more lives than car accidents or gun violence.
Illicit fentanyl smuggled into the US is claiming increasingly more American lives, freshly-revealed data shows.
The amount of the synthetic opioid seized by American drug squads this year alone would be enough “to kill everyone in the United States,” the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated on December 20 in a news release.
Over 379 million potentially fatal illegal doses of the prescription painkiller have been confiscated so far in 2022. The haul of over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and 50.6 million fentanyl tablets is twice the amount apprehended the year before.
The agency added that Mexican drug-trafficking organizations were responsible for smuggling the synthetic opioid mass-produced at their clandestine labs into the US.
“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,” Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator, said in a statement.
©AP Photo / Louis Lanzano
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), man-made opioids like fentanyl are the cause of the majority of overdose deaths in the United States, with a mere speck of two milligrams of the drug enough to claim a life. In 2021, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with two-thirds of those deaths attributed to fentanyl, according to US figures.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), man-made opioids like fentanyl are the cause of the majority of overdose deaths in the United States, with a mere speck of two milligrams of the drug enough to claim a life. In 2021, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with two-thirds of those deaths attributed to fentanyl, according to US figures.
Previously, a US report revealed that illegal fentanyl has become the leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49. Since 2019, fatal overdoses from fentanyl have surged 94 percent, outstripping deaths from car accidents, gun violence, and suicides.
Fentanyl, a painkiller first manufactured in the late 1950s, is relatively cheap to make, and can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and heroin. Furthermore, drug dealers often lace counterfeit pills, passed off as authentic prescription medications, with the synthetic opioid.
Such fentanyl pills are often “made to look identical to real prescription medications — including OxyContin, Percocet, and Xanax — but only contain filler and fentanyl,” the DEA warned, alerting people to the fact that "no pharmaceutical pill bought on social media is safe.”
Republicans, who have repeatedly denounced the Joe Biden administration's "open border" policies as responsible for the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border, have also pointed out that the increased inflow of fentanyl and fatal overdoses have also occurred on the Democratic POTUS' watch.
Viral : Dramatic Footage Shows Florida Officer Accidentally Overdose on Fentanyl During Traffic Stop
A video of a Florida police officer struggling in and out of consciousness was released as an urgent message to the public about the dangers of fentanyl. The drug is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. It is added to other drugs to increase potency, and make illicit sales cheaper.
A terrifying video of a Florida officer was recently released showing her in a state of unconsciousness after being just barely exposed to the drug fentanyl.
Tavares Officer Courtney Bannick was performing a traffic stop on Tuesday alongside other officers when she found the deadly narcotic inside a rolled-up dollar bill, police believe.
Shortly after the vehicle search, Bannock began to struggle to breathe. Luckily another officer heard her choking and realized she needed immediate medical attention.
Video of the incident shows officers laying her on the ground and administering Narcan or “naloxone,” a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. The medicine can be administered through a nasal spray or injected directly into a person’s muscle, under the skin, or in their vein, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The officers had to give Bannick three doses of Narcan as they waited for ambulances to arrive; she is, however, expected to make a full recovery.
“She was completely lifeless. She looks deceased in these videos,” Tavares police Detective Courtney Sullivan told an Orlando news outlet. “So she’s very thankful today.”
“If the other officers weren’t there, there’s a very high chance and probability that today would be different and that we would be wearing our thin blue line — the straps that go over our badges,” Sullivan said, referring to protocol when an officer dies in the line of duty.
Bannick, who was wearing gloves at the time of the search, said she had performed this kind of search “100 times before the same way” adding that it only takes “one time and a minimal amount” to cause someone to have an overdose.
“I’m thankful I wasn’t alone and had immediate help,” she said.
Officers believe wind may have picked up the fentanyl and blown it into Bannick’s face, causing her to overdose. The individuals they had performed a search on are now facing criminal charges.
Fentanyl : C22H28N2O
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