EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Field Division seized 1.5 million fentanyl pills and nearly 165 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2023, the agency announced in a news release issued Friday, Jan. 19.
The El Paso Field Office for the DEA covers West Texas and New Mexico.
Nationally, the DEA seized more than 77 million fentanyl pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in calendar year 2023, according to the agency.
This is the single most fentanyl seized by the DEA in a single year, the agency said.
It amounts to the equivalent of 386 million does of fentanyl — enough to kill everyone living in the United States, the agency said.
Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, according to the DEA.
“The fentanyl we see today is even deadlier than before. Fentanyl pills today are more potent. DEA laboratory testing in 2023 showed that seven out of 10 pills tested contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. This is an increase from four out of 10 pills in 2021 and six out of 10 pills in 2022. A potentially deadly dose is considered just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, which is approximately the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil,” according to the DEA.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting record numbers of drug poisonings for 2023, with their latest estimate for the 12-month period ending June 2023 at 112,323 American lives lost. Nearly 70% of these drug poisonings are from fentanyl.
To put these drug poisoning numbers into context, roughly 59,000 U.S. servicemembers died in the entire Vietnam War.
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