The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is warning everyone of the surge in fentanyl-related drug overdose cases, after seeing several mass-overdose events.
According to the DEA’s press release, a fentanyl-related mass overdose is defined as “three or more overdoses occurring close in time and at the same location.”
In months, these mass-overdose events have occurred in seven American cities, with 58 overdoses and 29 deaths.
“Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a recent press release.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is manufactured in a lab with the primary effect being pain relief.
Fentanyl is used prescriptively with cancer patients for pain management. Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Many of the users are ingesting it unknowingly, as drug traffickers are adding it to their products to drive addiction and attract more revenue.
Drug traffickers advertise it as “cocaine” when it actually has fentanyl mixed in. Drug traffickers are also selling pills that are identical to prescription pills, which have had amounts of fentanyl added in, said a press release from the DEA.
The Little Rock DEA assistant special agent in charge, Jared Harper told KATV, that in the state of Arkansas alone, this year nearly 20,000 pills containing fentanyl have been seized.
Fentanyl was found in one of every four pills seized by the DEA.
Drug overdoses are a large problem in the United States, as it was estimated in October 2021, after a 12-month period that over 100,000 Americans had died from drug overdoses, a press release from the DEA said.
This was nearly three times the amount of deaths due to traffic accidents and more than two times the number of gun deaths. ⅔ of those deaths were due to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Last year, in the state of Arkansas there were 420 overdose deaths and about 3,000 non-fatal overdose cases, said Harper to KATV. One of the most common ways to treat a narcotic overdose is Narcan. It can be used to reverse an opioid overdose.
In Conway, Narcan can be purchased at Heartland Pharmacy, Amity Rd Pharmacy, and Cornerstone Pharmacy. It is not available at the Student Health Building, though UCAPD is trained to administer Narcan and has carried it for two years now.
“We have been retraining annually. We were funded by the Blue and You Foundation grant for naloxone kits.” Sergeant Michael Hopper said.
UCAPD has only administered Narcan once, back in May of 2020. In efforts to prevent the potential spread of fentanyl on campus, UCAPD has participated in alcohol and drug awareness programming in conjunction with Housing and Student Wellness.