DEA Warns Of 'Mass Overdose Events' From Fentanyl: See Texas Data

AUSTIN, TX — Austin is one of several cities across the nation that have reported a mass overdose event involving fentanyl in recent months as the synthetic opioid drives an increase in drug-related deaths, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday in a letter warning law enforcement agencies across the country of the spike.

Anne Milgram, the nation's top drug official, said in the letter to local, state and federal law enforcement officials that in recent months, 29 people have died in 58 “mass-overdose events” in seven U.S. cities.

A mass-overdose event is one in which three or more people take a lethal dose in proximity of time and place. Austin is one of the cities in which such events have been reported, along with Wilton Manors, Florida; Cortez, Colorado; Commerce City, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; St. Louis, Missouri; and Washington, D.C.

Natural and synthetic opioids are a scourge everywhere, though illegally manufactured fentanyl makes them more dangerous, “killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” Milgram said in a news release.

Two-thirds of the 105,750 people who died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in October 2021 were using synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, according to provisional data published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In fact, the DEA said, fentanyl killed more Americans than guns and traffic crashes combined.

The DEA predicted 4,972 drug overdose deaths in Texas in the 12-month period ending in October 2021, an increase of 22.43 percent over the previous year. Deaths from overdoses involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have increased dramatically in the state since 2020. There were 1,634 such reported deaths in the 12 months preceding October 2021, up from 406 reported deaths in the 12 months preceding January 2020.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than opioids and has a legitimate purpose, but drug cartels also mix it up in clandestine labs and smuggle it into the United States through Mexico for the black market, according to the DEA. On the streets, cocaine is laced with fentanyl to make it more powerful or stretch the base product, or it’s pressed into pills as passed off as legitimate prescription pills such as Percocet, Vicodin or OxyContin.

Because there is no official oversight or quality control, the counterfeit pills often contain lethal doses of fentanyl.

“Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs,” Milgram said. “Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl, until it's too late."

Illegally produced fentanyl is found in all 50 states. Opioid deaths increased more than 28 percent in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to the most recent report on opioid morbidity in the United States.

The DEA said it is ready to step in and assist law enforcement officials in Texas to trace mass-overdose events back to local drug dealers and the international cartels behind the surging domestic supply of fentanyl.

So far this year, the DEA has seized almost 2,000 pounds of fentanyl and 1 million fake pills. Last year, the agency seized more than 15,000 pounds of fentanyl, four times as much as was confiscated in 2017.

That’s enough to kill every American, the agency said.