U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said the potency of illicit fentanyl pills is declining, but half remain powerful enough to kill with a single dose.
DEA officials made the announcement at the National Family Summit on Fentanyl this week. For the past three years, DEA has invited families who have lost a loved one to a fentanyl to get together in the nation’s capital to explore ways to combat the fentanyl crisis. About 120 families attended this year.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram touted a decrease in drug overdose deaths and said the agency’s latest laboratory testing indicates 5 out of 10 pills tested in 2024 contain a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. That’s down from 7 out of 10 pills in 2023 and 6 out of 10 pills in 2022.
In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s provisionally estimated overdose deaths in 2023 declined about 3.1% to 107,543. That’s down from 111,029 in 2022. Two out of every three deaths involved synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a cheap and potent opioid smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. In June, CDC reported a 14.5% decrease in overdose deaths from June 2023 through June 2024.
“Decreases in drug-related deaths and the lethality of pills equals lives saved,” Milgram said. “The 14.5% decrease in poisonings and overdose deaths translates to more than 14,000 American lives saved.”
She also said drug cartels in Mexico have reduced the amount of fentanyl they put into pills because of DEA pressure.
“Our work is far from over and DEA remains focused on destroying the criminal networks – the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels – responsible for poisoning Americans,” Milgram said.
Milgram told families that the issue was personal.
“We are gathered here today because every single one of us has been impacted by fentanyl in our communities,” she said in her opening remarks. “This issue is not distant. It’s personal. It’s in our homes. It’s in our neighborhoods. It’s in our communities.”
A lethal dose of the potent opioid is about 2 milligrams, depending on the opioid tolerance of the user. In 2022, the average fentanyl pill contained 2.4 milligrams of fentanyl, according to analysis by DEA forensic chemists who test random samples of the fentanyl seized in the U.S. Overall, the tested samples ranged from a low of .03 milligrams to a high of 9 milligrams.
