Fifty times stronger than heroin, Fentanyl is triggering spike in mass overdoses

Fentanyl, the potent opioid chemical, is used in cancer treatments but its misuse is causing alarm among  authorities at the rocketing number of deaths across the USA.

On Wednesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) alerted police forces throughout the United States to an increase in the number of mass overdoses, El Pais reports on April 10.

That is defined as the intoxication of three or more people at the same time.

“In just the past two months, there have been at least seven confirmed mass overdose events across the United States resulting in 58 overdoses and 29 overdose deaths,” said Anne Milgram, the head of the DEA, in a letter to law enforcement agencies.

“Last year, the United States suffered more fentanyl-related deaths than gun-related and auto-related deaths combined,” she added.

Two milligrams of fentanyl is enough to kill a person, Max Eckmann, a doctor affiliated with the Texas Medical Association, said.

That quantity of the drug fits on the the tip of a ballpoint pen, Eckman added.

The doctor told El Pais that the drugs on the streets of the US today “are more powerful and deadly than ever before.”

The DEA considers that the country is suffering from an epidemic of fentanyl addiction.

The United States has recorded 105,000 deaths from drug overdose between October 2020 and October 2021.

Compared to the previous period this is an increase of about 30%, with fentanyl responsible for nearly seven out of 10 of those deaths.

On Sunday officers in Orange County, California, arrested two men who had enough fentanyl “to kill 4.7 million people”.

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