The Drug Enforcement Administration recognized August 21 as National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day by joining several organizations to warn the public about the dangers of fentanyl poisoning.
According to the DEA, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s about 50 times more potent than heroin, 100 times more potent than morphine and is inexpensive, widely available, highly addictive and potentially lethal.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said only two milligrams of fentanyl are needed for a lethal dose.
The Rio Grande Valley is no stranger to fentanyl.
In May of last year, Jose ‘Pelon’ Raquel Lerma, a Donna native, was indicted for the drug overdose of 29-year-old Brownville musician Sergio Sanchez.
Sanchez played trombone for Brownsville’s Banda La Nueva Generación de Chuy Hernandez at the Old Beer House in downtown McAllen.
According to police, Lerma sold cocaine laced with fentanyl to Sanchez and three other men who used the drug in a men’s bathroom stall, where they were later found unresponsive.
Authorities arrested Lerma shortly after police obtained videos of the men interacting with Lerma and consuming narcotics. Investigators also traced the unique packaging of the drugs to Lerma, according to the affidavit.
Lerma made bail the following month and was released from the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center, jail records indicate.
“From large cities to rural America, no community is safe from the presence of fentanyl.” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a news release. “DEA is proud to work with families who have been affected by fentanyl poisonings to spread the word and to save lives.”
The DEA says that drug traffickers are increasingly mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs in powder and pill forms to drive addiction and create repeat customers. They say that many fentanyl poisoning victims are unaware they’re ingesting the drug.
The CDC says that an estimated 107,622 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and poisonings in 2021, and 67% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
In the RGV, Custom and Border Protection agents seized over $445,000 in May and June of 2022 at the Hidalgo International Bridge and had several other busts earlier this year.
“Fentanyl is flooding our communities because unlike plant-based drugs like cocaine and heroin, there is no limit to the amount of synthetic fentanyl that drug cartels can produce,” DEA Special Agent Daniel C. Comeaux said in the release. “Drug traffickers’ limitless production of fentanyl poses a great threat to our communities because it drives overdoses, poisonings and devastates families.”
The DEA has created a special exhibit in its museum titled “The Faces of Fentanyl,” which commemorates the lives lost due to fentanyl poisoning and allows the public to submit photos of loved ones lost to the drug.
One can submit the photo and name of a lost loved one to [email protected] or post their photo and name on social media using the hashtag #NationalFentanylAwarenessDay.
For more information on the dangers of fentanyl, visit www.DEA.gov/fentanylawareness.
