The use of fentanyl is on the rise at an alarming rate in New Mexico and West Texas, leading to more fatal overdoses primarily in young people.
According to a KOB report, in New Mexico and West Texas alone, the DEA seized 41 kg of fentanyl in the fiscal year 2020. A year later, the number increased to 292 kg. In the most recent fiscal year, agents seized 391 kg.
Acting Medical Director of the New Mexico Poison Center, Dr. Brandon J. Warrick said overdoses related to fentanyl are also on the rise, including more than a thousand deaths during the pandemic. “Over 30%, just during COVID and that’s the most dramatic increase that we’ve seen in a one or a two-year period of time, with any drug that I’m familiar with in the history of New Mexico,” he told KOB.
Fentanyl, reportedly 50 times stronger than heroin, was created by the pharmaceutical company Janssen in the 1960s as a pain killer. It has become a major street drug, available in pill and powder form because it is cheaper and easier for the drug cartel to make. “They make millions of dollars with a few thousand dollars of investment and precursor chemicals,” according to Carlos Briano, the Public Information Officer for the DEA El Paso Division, which also oversees the entire state of New Mexico.
The DEA, according to KOB, recently released the results for phase three of a nationwide enforcement operation called “One Pill Can Kill.” During the fourth-month operation, the DEA seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and almost 1000 pounds of fentanyl power. “Those seizures equate to almost 36 million potentially fatal doses of fentanyl,” Special Agent in Charge Greg Millard said at a press conference in El Paso. During the same four-month span, the DEA also seized more than two million potentially fatal doses in Texas and New Mexico.
“The only safe pill that is safe to consume is one that you got from a prescription from a doctor or a dentist, that you filled at a trusted, licensed pharmacy, and was filled to your name, and you’re going to take it as directed by that medical professional,” Briano said.
Dr. Warrick said fentanyl is six times more likely to kill someone who uses opioids than someone who does not. “A lot of people actually use fentanyl, just like they would alcohol because they’ve had a bad day, and they are just trying to escape some of the emotional trauma or the emotional pain from that,” he said. But as dosage increases, that’s when trouble begins. “In the end stage or the severe cases, people are comatose, and they’re not breathing, and that’s when death occurs,” he said.