In the past week, I have read several articles about the remarkable spike in overdose deaths. If you know an addict (and the odds are that you do!), take a moment to talk to them about this problem. This is an increasing, deadly problem, and it can kill someone in a flash.
What do these articles tell us? They tell us that the United States saw a record number of drug-overdose deaths last year — more than 93,000, which marked an increase of almost 30% from 2019. They also tell us that law enforcement officials are seeing an alarming amount of heroin laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl, even in much smaller quantities, is deadlier than street heroin. Because the criminalization of drugs means that this astronomical industry is unregulated, the addict never really knows what he or she is buying and easily acquires products tainted with fentanyl, 50 times more deadly than heroin.
The new public safety alert from the Drug Enforcement Administration warns Americans that counterfeit pills — often sold on social media or e-commerce sites — increasingly contain fentanyl or sometimes methamphetamine, posing health risks beyond the danger of buying prescription pills. One article lets us know that DEA has seized 9.6 million counterfeit pills already this budget year, which is more than it seized in the previous two years combined, officials said. The number of seized counterfeit pills found to contain fentanyl has jumped 430% since 2019.
Moreover, the drug dealer isn’t just standing on a street corner anymore. It’s sitting in a pocket on your phone. Many of the counterfeit pills that alarm the authorities are being sold on sites such as Snapchat and TikTok.
Folks, warn your kids and any addicts you may know before it is too late!
Ken Abraham
Dover
