NIH data reveal that fentanyl seizures increased 30-fold between 2018 and 2021:

Fentanyl use is skyrocketing in America, leading to a wave of synthetic opioid deaths and seizures by US law enforcement.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that 9,969,551 pills containing fentanyl were seized by law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2021, a 30-fold increase from 290,304 seized in 2018.

Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are extremely dangerous and have led to a drug crisis that is responsible for more than 100,000 American deaths each year.

Fentanyl comes largely from Mexico, and experts point to the southern border crisis as the source of most of these drugs entering the Americas.

NIH reports that pills represent only 30% of fentanyl attacks by law enforcement last year (archive photo)

“The rise in pills containing illicit fentanyl marks a new and increasingly dangerous era in the United States,” said Dr Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the NIH.

“Pills are often taken or snorted by people who are purer and have a lower tolerance for drug use. If a pill is contaminated with fentanyl, as is often the case now, poisoning can easily occur.”

Law enforcement seizures of fentanyl have been on the rise for three years. From 2018 to 2019, the increase in seizures quintupled to the more than 1.5 million pills found mixed with the drug.

The figure then more than doubled in 2020 to 4,149,037 before doubling again in 2021.

Border officials report that they only have the resources to control 5% of the cars crossing the southern border, and the process can take a long time. Pictured: Cars queuing to cross the border in Tijuana, Baja, California

Pictured: Migrants cross the Rio Bravo River from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to El Paso, Texas

Fentanyl is not used intentionally by humans because it is so powerful and can kill someone almost instantly when used.

Instead, it is used synthetically in many illicit drugs such as heroin, Xanax, cocaine and others, leaving many people dying of overdose and utter ignorance.

Associate professor of public health at New York University, Dr. “Many heroin users already expect fentanyl to be in their drug supply and are aware of the dangers,” said Joseph Palmar.

“However, people who illegally purchase street pills that are said to be Xanax or oxycodone can overdose if these pills are laced with traces of fentanyl.”

“This puts a much larger population at risk that doesn’t expect their drugs to be counterfeit”

Fentanyl first appeared on the DEA’s radar in 2013 and has since exacerbated the already hopeless opioid and overdose crisis in the United States.

Opioids (black) are responsible for approximately 80% of overdose deaths in the United States, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl (brown) are responsible for a large percentage of total opioid deaths.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show a record 105,752 Americans died from drug overdoses between October 2020 and 2021, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period.

About 70,000 of these deaths were caused by a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl.

According to the NIH research team, the pills are responsible for about 30 percent of fentanyl seizures, meaning this increase is only part of the overall problem.

Powdered drugs such as cocaine containing fentanyl also increased by 263 percent over the three-year period, the researchers reported.

Many experts believe the drugs came from the southern border, and authorities have called for more resources to control the exit of products from Mexico and to detect illegal materials once they enter.

The Washington Post reported in February that checking a car for drugs or other illegal goods can be lengthy and laborious.

Currently, authorities have the resources to control only five percent of the cars that cross the border, making it nearly impossible to stop the drug flow.

“It’s not just a hole in our security, it’s a hole in our security… it’s turning into a loss of life,” Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said in a Senate courtroom speech last month.