As the fentanyl crisis continues to worsen throughout Texas, a special agent for the DEA says it will soon impact every person in the state.
In 2012, there were 59 deaths recorded in Texas due to fentanyl poisoning, accounting for just 2.97% of all drug-related deaths that year.
That number skyrocketed to 2,161 in 2022, accounting for 44.61% of all drug-related deaths in the state, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services fentanyl data dashboard.
Eduardo Chávez, the DEA’s special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division, said this may be just the beginning.
“We’re only in the top of fentanyl’s second inning. There’s a long way to go. Right now, plenty of people say, ‘I don’t know anyone who has died of a poisoning or overdose,’” Chávez said, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“In the middle innings, that will change. Everyone will either know someone — or know of someone — who has died.”
Chávez added that the rise in fentanyl is beginning to affect everyone, regardless of where they live.
“This is not only an inner-city problem or for communities with latchkey kids or gangs. This is in the neighborhoods full of high-end cars and high-dollar, resource-filled schools now equalized into this drug threat,” he stated, per the DMN.
Dallas alone has seen 7,017 reported drug and narcotics violations since the start of the year as of September 5, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. Further complicating efforts to address crime in the city is a severe shortage in the Dallas Police Department, which employs only 3,100 officers as opposed to a recommended 4,000.
Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 and introduced into the medical world as an anesthetic in 1960.
It is 100 times stronger than morphine as an analgesic. Due to its potency, illegal drug manufacturers began to add fentanyl to their products as a replacement for other more expensive and less effective drugs. But just 2 milligrams — equal to 10 to 15 grains of table salt — is considered a lethal dose.
As a result, overdoses due to fentanyl and other substances have increased dramatically countrywide, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“[W]e are in the midst of an overdose crisis that has reached a devastating new height,” said DEA administrator Anne Milgram in recent remarks to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“The amount of illegal fentanyl in our country has risen to an unprecedented level. This year alone, DEA has seized enough fentanyl to provide every member of the United States population with a lethal dose and we are still seizing more fentanyl each and every day,” Milgram said.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott launched the fentanyl data dashboard to raise awareness about the deadly drug, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
In an attempt to combat the growing crisis, Abbott also signed four bills in June that officially became law on Friday.
House Bill 6 “creates a criminal offense of murder for supplying fentanyl that results in death.” House Bill 3908, known as Tucker’s Law, requires public schools to provide instruction on abuse and prevention to grades 6 through 12, according to a press release from Abbott.
Another bill, House Bill 3144, establishes October as Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Month to help raise awareness of the crisis.
Finally, Senate Bill 867 makes it legal for Texas colleges and universities to distribute opioid antagonists, such as NARCAN, to prevent future overdoses.