In the latest effort to reverse a startling trend, this week, The Texas Department of State Health Services unveiled a Fentanyl Trends dashboard, showing just how many Texans the synthetic opioid has killed each year since 2014.
“Having the correct resources are very, very important to guide families through this journey of hell,” said Winning the Fight Founder and Executive Director, Kathy O’Keefe.
O’Keefe first began the nonprofit Winning the Fight to provide drug education, support and necessary resources after her 18-year-old son Brett died from a heroin overdose in 2010.
In the years since trends have changed.
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“Fentanyl we started seeing a little bit of. And then all of a sudden, it was just this blast that we had,” she said.
It’s a shift board member Kathy Travis witnessed firsthand.
“Jessica was just a beautiful young lady,” said Travis.
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Travis said her daughter Jessica first struggled with addiction in high school, using Adderall, Xanax and marijuana to cope with depression and anxiety.
After graduation, Jessica began using methamphetamines.
“She didn’t want to use drugs, but they were the thing that made her feel better, made her forget all of the things that bothered her and just made her feel normal,” she said.
After making several efforts to get clean, including 11 trips to rehab, Travis said Jessica began using again in January 2021 while quarantined after a COVID exposure.
At 25-years-old, Jessica died. The medical examiner’s report showed what she thought was methamphetamine was laced with fentanyl.
“To find fentanyl in her blood system was just shocking to me because my daughter wouldn’t have done that. She didn’t want to die,” said Travis.
This new state data shows Jessica’s death was one of 1,645 fatal fentanyl poisonings that year. By 2022, the number swelled to more than 2,161.
It also shows fentanyl poisonings now account for nearly 45% of all drug-related deaths. By comparison, fentanyl accounted for less than 12% of drug-related deaths in 2019.
“It’s not surprising, but it is scary,” said Travis.
This week, in a release from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, Abbott and other officials said the dashboard is part of an effort to ramp up efforts to combat the crisis.
“Measuring a problem is an important step in understanding and improving it,” said DSHS Commissioner Dr. Jennifer Shuford. “DSHS is in a unique position to analyze and share information about fentanyl-related deaths as part of Governor Abbott’s One Pill Kills campaign. I hope making this data easily accessible will allow Texas experts and leaders to continue to craft solutions to this deadly crisis.”
Advocates agree awareness is key.
“At least we have people trying, and they’re talking about it. They’re sure talking about it a lot more than they were last year, and I’m thankful,” said Travis.
When it comes to the numbers, the state warns 2023’s data lags.
Still, O’Keefe’s hopeful their efforts to educate are paying off, though the fight is far from over.
“I think we need to just keep talking about it,” said O’Keefe.
She added it will take a comprehensive approach to find a solution.
“We could use more resources. But regardless, we still have to look at the mental health because people substance use because it fills a void,” she said.
She said that includes increasing funding for treatment.
Come October, Winning the Fight will roll out a new program in four Denton County communities to educate parents of kids in the juvenile court system about addiction in hopes of reducing recidivism rates.
WHAT IS FENTANYL?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, which is equal to 10-15 grains of table salt, is considered a lethal dose.
Without laboratory testing, there is no way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder. If you encounter fentanyl in any form, do not handle it and call 911 immediately.
Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,622 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, with 66% of those deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Drug poisonings are the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Fentanyl available in the United States is primarily supplied by two criminal drug networks, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
WHAT IS RAINBOW FENTANYL?
In August 2022 the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public advisory about the alarming emerging trend of colorful fentanyl available nationwide.
Brightly-colored fentanyl, dubbed "rainbow fentanyl" in the media, is being seized in multiple forms, including pills, powder, and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk.
“Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States.”
Despite claims that certain colors may be more potent than others, there is no indication through DEA’s laboratory testing that this is the case. The DEA said every color, shape, and size of fentanyl should be considered extremely dangerous.
