Take fake fentanyl pills off the street now
With opioid deaths on the rise, the DEA and citizens with opioid prescriptions must do their part.
Fentanyl, seen here after being seized by Customs and Border Protection officers in Nogales, Ariz., is a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.(Mamta Popat / The Associated Press)
Following the spring break deaths of two teenagers in Venus last month, the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports “a sense of urgency” among federal agents “as counterfeit pills containing fatal amounts of the drug are becoming more prevalent in North Texas.”
That surge is having deadly effects. According to reporting by KTTV (CBS Channel 11), the number of deaths related at least in part to fentanyl in Tarrant County grew from nine in 2019 to 95 in 2020. MedStar, an ambulance service provider in Tarrant County, responded to 236 cases in the past 12 months in which first responders administered Narcan, a treatment for opioid overdose. That’s up from 152 such cases in the previous 12 months. Officials with the Dallas Office of Vital Statistics, which tracks death records, did not respond to requests for information about fentanyl-related deaths.