ST. GEORGE — As massive fentanyl seizures become more frequent along Interstate 15 in Southern Utah, authorities are taking special care when encountering and handling these potentially deadly narcotics.
Fentanyl places law enforcement and other first responders at risk of accidental exposure to the substance, which can occur by inhaling it through the nose or mouth, or it can also be absorbed through the skin or eyes.
Moreover, even a small amount of the drug can cause significant health-related complications, including respiratory depression or death, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training says.
What makes the drug so deadly is its potency, considering it can take only 2 milligrams of fentanyl to cause death. For example, a sweetener packet at a restaurant table contains 1,000 milligrams.
The dangers associated with fentanyl for law enforcement also were mentioned during a Congressional subcommittee hearing “Fentanyl – the next wave of the opioid crisis,” which was held in Washington D.C., on March 21, 2017. The hearing focused on addressing the substance that was coined as the driving force behind a nationwide overdose epidemic.
The report released following the hearing revealed that fentanyl posed a risk for officers who could unknowingly come into contact with it during routine testing, through either accidental skin contact or inhalation of the substance. This is “one of the biggest dangers and challenges faced by law enforcement,” the report states.
Fentanyl and overdose deaths
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in the 12-month period ending in October 2021, over 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, with 66 percent of those deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Last year, the United States suffered more fentanyl-related deaths than gun- and auto-related deaths combined.
The potency factor is also what makes the drug so attractive to dealers and so deadly to consumers of the illicit substance.
One kilogram of pure fentanyl can be purchased for less than $5,000 and is so potent it can be stretched into 16-24 kilograms of product that can then be sold for $80,000 wholesale and $1.6 million in street-level sales. Drug cartels are smuggling massive amounts of fentanyl with other narcotics from Mexico across the Southwest border.
The ingredients to make fentanyl are typically shipped to secret labs in Mexico run by drug cartels that then smuggle pounds of the synthetic drug over the “porous” southwest border, launched through catapults or drones and into the U.S., according to the DEA.
Moreover, the DEA continues to seize fentanyl at record rates. In the first three months of 2022, the agency seized almost 2,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and 1 million fake pills, and last year, agents seized more than 15,000 pounds of fentanyl—four times the amount seized in 2017 — enough to kill every American living in the United States.
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