Fentanyl Becoming Deadlier, Federal Drug Agency Warns

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has warned that fentanyl coming into the United States is becoming more deadly. In a report released this past week, the DEA said that there is now a “higher average purity in pills containing fentanyl” smuggled into the U.S. by Mexican drug cartels. “In 2022, the average fentanyl pill contained 2.4 milligrams (mg) of fentanyl, ranging from a low of .03 mg to a high of 9 mg,” the agency wrote in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, noting that a lethal dose is about 2 milligrams. The DEA added that its “forensic laboratory results documented that approximately seven out of 10 fake pills contain a deadly dose of fentanyl, up from four in 10 pills in 2021.”...