WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – The DEA seized a record-breaking 386 million deadly fentanyl doses across the US last year, which is enough to kill every American.
According to the New York Post, nearly 10% of the drugs were seized in New York alone and came in the form of pills and powder that were marketed as another drug but were hiding a potent and lethal fentanyl dosage inside, the federal agency’s New York division announced Thursday.
“Deception masks reality when it comes to deadly drugs on today’s city streets,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarantino said. “The vast majority of the exhibits submitted to the DEA’s New York City-based Northeast Regional Laboratory were fentanyl; lab analysis also revealed that fake prescription pills were anything but prescription drugs.”
Wisconsin has been one of the top states for overdose deaths, which rose 1,000% from 2015 to 2021, according to Forward Analytics. Jeremiah Winscher, project director of the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group’s Drug Unit, spoke with Fox 11 about Wiscosin’s fentanyl crisis, saying, “In 2022, our group, just LWAM alone, seized over 4,000% more fentanyl than we did in 2021.”
“In the first half of 2023, we seized almost 300% more than we had seized over the same six-month period in the previous year,” Winscher continued.
The Post reports that more than 77 million pills and roughly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder were seized around the country in 2023, which represents a 119% rise in fentanyl pill seizures from the previous year. The lethal dose of the extremely powerful substance is only two milligrams, or about the size of a pencil tip.
Between June 2022 and June 2023, over 112,300 Americans died from opioid poisonings, and fentanyl was the primary cause of approximately 70% of those deaths.
Comments