Fentanyl Awareness Day: ‘Spread the word to save lives’

(US Drug Enforcement Administration)

Dallas-Fort Worth (WBAP/KLIF) – Drug enforcement & drug treatment experts agree, “Fentanyl is the most dangerous drug we’ve ever seen.”

Dallas-Fort Worth (WBAP/KLIF) – Today is National Fentanyl Awareness Day; so designated by Congress last year when government stats revealed that over 108-thousand people died of fentanyl overdoses in 2021.

Steve Carelton, Chief Clinical Officer with the multi-state Gallus Medical Detox Centers says that since then, fentanyl has changed the landscape of street-drug use, making it more deadly than ever.

(Gallus Detox Centers Steve Carleton LCSW, CACIII – Gallus Detox Centers)

Across Texas and nationwide, efforts have ramped up to reign in a spike fentanyl related overdoses and deaths.

According to Drug Enforcement Administrator (DEA) Anne Milligram, “Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered.” She says that fentanyl is everywhere; from large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison. We must take every opportunity to spread the word to prevent fentanyl-related overdose death and poisonings from claiming scores of American lives every day.”

In Texas legislators are advancing bills that would require that every school district in the state have the anti-overdose reversal drug Narcan in supply. Another bill would classify a fentanyl overdose as a poisoning which could lead to heftier penalties for distributors and dealers.

Meantime, in observance of Fentanyl Awareness Day, April 9, 2023, the DEA has created a ‘Faces of Fentanyl’ Exihibit at #DEAHQ in Arlington, VA to commemorate the lives lost from #fentanyl poisoning.

(Copyright 2023 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News.)