Crime labs used by the Texas Department of Public Safety are tracking an increase in the number of cases involving fentanyl. It's a synthetic opioid that's drastically more powerful than morphine.
"All of our laboratories across the state of Texas are seeing an increased number of cases that do contain fentanyl," said DPS forensic scientist Jennifer Hatch in Houston. "While fentanyl is not present in everything we analyze, it is much more present today than it was even five years ago. As an example, in 2019 we reported fentanyl or a fentanyl analog in about 94 cases. In 2022, through the end of June, we have already reported about 513 cases."
The head of the DPS puts the blame on drug cartels in Mexico smuggling the drug across the border, sometimes mixed into other illegal drugs.
"It's not just in powder form, it's not just laced in cocaine or methamphetamine," DPS Director Steve McCraw said. The drug is frequently being mixed into counterfeit prescription medications.
"They don't care how many milligrams they put in a dose, as long as they're making money," McCraw said.
The potency of fentanyl and its inclusion in other drugs has increased the danger of those drugs, he said, even for first-time users.
"It's worse than Russian roulette," McCraw said. "They're more likely to die from a counterfeit pill produced in Mexico than anything else...if they take it."
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