The lethality can’t be talked about enough — that comment from drug enforcement agents this past week as they ask for help in stemming the tide of deadly fentanyl coming into the region. The amounts seized over the past year were nearly triple what was seen in 2021.
In a new press release, Drug Enforcement Agency officials ask families and communities to sit down and talk about the consequences that can come from taking the substance, perhaps without even knowing it. Most of the fentanyl trafficked is done in the form of fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills. They are often easy to find and they are made to look identical to real prescriptions such as OxyContin®, Percocet®, and Xanax®. Unfortunately, they contain filler and fentanyl, and they are are often deadly.
Throughout 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Omaha Division seized nearly 4.7 million lethal doses of fentanyl in both pill and powder form. Nationally, DEA investigators reported seizing more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl in a 12 month span, enough to kill every American. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, is considered a potentially deadly dose.

Fentanyl is the primary drug threat in Minnesota and ties with methamphetamine as the number one drug threat in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The DEA has created a Faces of Fentanyl memorial to commemorate the lives lost from fentanyl poisoning. To submit a photo of a loved one lost to fentanyl, please send their name, age, and photograph to fentanylawareness@dea.gov, or post a photo and their name to social media using the hashtag #JustKNOW.