Political | Process

“Everything is potentially deadly right now, and people need to be aware,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told ABC’s This Week in a recent interview.

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• Not only were fentanyl seizures at the highest level ever recorded, but fentanyl overdoses within the United States also hit new highs, indicating the success that transnational criminal organizations had in pushing their deadly products to the public.

• A DEA investigation this fall found a direct link between criminal drug organizations in Mexico and fentanyl-related overdose deaths. 

• But drug users are not necessarily choosing to consume fentanyl, which is half the problem for U.S. government efforts to stop this third iteration of the opioid crisis. Street drugs are being laced with fentanyl, making all types of illicit drugs unsafe.

• The emergence of fentanyl began nearly a decade ago. U.S. Customs and Border Protection , the federal agency responsible for safeguarding the country’s borders, initially reported seizing fentanyl in 2013, when just 2 pounds werefound. In that time, suppliers have surged enormous amounts into the country.

• While federal agencies are making record-high seizures, exorbitant amounts are making it past them, as evidenced by the rise in fentanyl-caused overdose deaths.

• The 11,200 pounds of fentanyl seized by CBP at international mail inspection facilities, sea, land, and air ports of entry, and by smugglers trying to sneak it across between the ports of entry was double last year’s fentanyl seizures.

• That same year, 5,400 pounds of heroin were seized, according to CBP data for fiscal year 2021, which ran from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30.

SOURCE: WASHINGTONEXAMINER