The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning on Wednesday that Fentanyl is getting into more of the drugs that are being sold on the street — and is killing people who don't know they're using it.
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The warning, sent in a letter to federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, was prompted by a "nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events," which are characterized as "three or more overdoses occurring close in time and at the same location", according to a release from federal officials.
KCBS Radio's "Bay Current" producers recently spoke with KCBS Radio reporter Kathy Novak to better understand her coverage of how Fentanyl has taken hold of the Bay Area.
The concern is that people are getting together in groups, such as in a party situation, and using pills or powders that they think are other drugs, but are actually Fentanyl.
Fifty-eight people in the U.S. who apparently did not intend to use the deadly opioid have mass-overdosed in recent months, resulting in 29 deaths.
"Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said. "Already this year, numerous mass-overdose events have resulted in dozens of overdoses and deaths. Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs. Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl, until it's too late.”
Just last month in San Francisco three people died and nine others were taken to the hospital for Fentanyl overdoses when they apparently believed they were using cocaine.
Dr. Phillip Coffin, Director of Substance Use Research at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said there is just so much Fentanyl around that it is easy to make that mistake.
"Whether it’s a pill or a powder that you think is something else, it might be Fentanyl and especially if you aren’t using opioids on a regular basis, this can be rapidly deadly," he told KCBS Radio in March.
His advice for people is to use test strips, carry the overdose reversal medication, Naloxone, and stagger the use of any drug so that someone in your group is always alert in case of an emergency.
"What we really want is for people to be aware that any of these drugs could have fentanyl in them or actually be fentanyl to be ready to respond to an overdose by testing their drugs if they’re able to by having naloxone or narcan on hand," he explained.
The DEA said it seized almost 2000 pounds of fentanyl and one million fake pills in the first three months of 2022.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that over a 12-month period ending in October, 2021, more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, 66% of which were related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
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