The US federal agency responsible for combating drug trafficking seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire American population, a report for 2023 said.
“This is the largest amount of fentanyl seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in a single year. “That’s the equivalent of more than 386 million lethal doses of fentanyl – enough to kill all Americans,” the federal agency said in a news release Wednesday.
As many as 77 million fentanyl tablets and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder would have been taken off the streets in the United States in 2023 to limit the devastating effects of this drug, of which only 2 milligrams – the equivalent of a pencil point – can be fatal, according to DEA data.
It would also be the leading cause of death among our southern neighbors between the ages of 18 and 45. It is estimated that as many as 112,323 Americans died from drug overdoses between June 2022 and June 2023, while 70% were linked to fentanyl, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data cited by the DEA. .
“The fentanyl we are seeing today is even deadlier than before. Fentanyl pills are now more effective,” the press release states.
In fact, in 2021, only 4 out of 10 pills tested in the laboratory had a lethal dose, but this data would have increased to 6 out of 10 in 2022 and 7 out of 10 in 2023.
“The DEA has responded to this unprecedented threat with unprecedented measures,” the federal agency continued, emphasizing that it has done everything it can to create obstacles to the two major cartels “responsible for most of the fentanyl flooding the country to put away”.