The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is sounding the alarm over a troubling trend in which people are overdosing after unknowingly ingesting the highly potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

In a letter to federal, state and local law enforcement this week, the DEA said there’s been a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events involving three or more overdoses occurring at the same time and location.

According to the agency, there have been at least seven confirmed mass overdose events in the U.S. in just two months, resulting in 58 overdoses and 29 overdose deaths.

Drug traffickers often mix illicit fentanyl — which can be 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine — with other powder drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine because it’s cheap to manufacture and a small amount can be incredibly powerful. 

Dealers also sell fake prescription pills containing fentanyl designed to look like legitimate prescription opioids such as OxyContin, Percocet or Vicodin.

The DEA said this trend resulted in mass-overdose events as users are unknowingly taking large doses of the drug.

Three of the seven mass-overdose events occurred in March alone. In one instance, 21 people overdosed at a homeless shelter in Austin, Texas after ingesting crack-cocaine and methamphetamine laced with fentanyl. Three of those people died.

In Cortez, Colo., three people died in a hotel room after ingesting what they thought were oxycodone pills but were counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.

“Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs. Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl, until it’s too late.” 

Fentanyl has fueled an unprecedented spike in deadly drug overdoses nationwide. More than 105,000 Americans died from overdoses in the 12-month period ending in October with more than 66 percent of those fatalities involving fentanyl or other dangerous synthetic opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

A recent study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse analyzed national data on law enforcement seizures of fentanyl between 2018 and 2021 and found steep increases in the number of counterfeit pill seizures. Drug abuse resources, including those related to fentanyl use, overdose and death, can be beneficial in educating drug users about the harmful, potentially fatal effects of fentanyl.

The analysis found the proportion of counterfeit pills to total seizures more than doubled over that time, with pills representing more than 29 percent of illicit fentanyl seizures by the end of 2021.

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