US authorities have seized more fentanyl in 2022 than enough to kill the entire US population, the US Drug Administration (DEA) said Tuesday, recalling the deadly danger posed by this man-made opiate.
The DEA said it seized 50.6 million counterfeit prescription drug pills containing fentanyl and 4.5 tons of fentanyl powder during the year. That equated to “more than 379 million potentially lethal doses,” she estimated.
Fentanyl, which a decade ago accounted for only a small fraction of overdose deaths, is now “the deadliest drug threat in the country,” according to the agency.
“It’s a highly addictive man-made opiate that’s 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, the small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, is considered a life-threatening dose,” she said.
According to official figures, it is the leading reason for the more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States from July 2021 to June 2022.
Cheap and relatively easy to manufacture, fentanyl has supplanted prescription opiates and heroin in the illicit drug market.
According to the DEA, the main suppliers of fentanyl to the United States are the Sinaloa and Jalisco Mexican cartels.
Her fentanyl is made in Mexico with chemicals “largely from China,” she said.
Some are distributed in the form of counterfeit prescription drugs like Percocet, OxyContin, and Xanax, according to the same source.
About 60% of the counterfeit fentanyl-containing drugs tested by the DEA contained life-threatening doses of fentanyl.