The City of Farmers Branch hosted a meeting at City Hall with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of Dallas last Wednesday to inform and warn residents about the dangers of fentanyl.
The community is reeling in the aftermath of a string of overdoses in local schools, prompting the city and its police department to increase efforts to educate citizens about the powerful and deadly effects of the illegal drug.
The meeting was attended by city residents as well as representatives from the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (CFBISD), the Farmers Branch City Council, the Farmers Branch Fire Department, and DEA Dallas.
Officials highlighted the drug’s unprecedented potency, noting that the drug is 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin.
“One thousand lethal dose tablets could be made from just this one packet,” said DEA Regional Lab Director Jerry Walker, holding up a Splenda packet.
CFBISD resource officers advised parents not to allow their children to use social media platforms. For those who do allow their children access to these platforms, officers recommended that they monitor the websites closely.
“The typical process is, [students] are getting the drugs on social media. I recommend to parents of students, or parents in general, … that they don’t allow their kids to have these social media sites. If you do, monitor it closely because you can get anything on there,” warned School Resource Officer Joel Carlos.
Fentanyl trafficking and addiction have continued to develop into a nationwide and statewide crisis, prompting the Texas Legislature to take a series of steps to attempt to slow the cartels’ movement of the deadly drug across the Texas-Mexico border.
Illegal drug violations also continue to plague the city of Dallas. As of April 18, reported drug and narcotic violations are up 5.25% citywide year over year, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.