INDIANAPOLIS — The fentanyl epidemic is the biggest problem the Drug Enforcement Administration is facing here in Indianapolis right now.
13News sat down with DEA Assistant Special Agent Michael Gannon in Indy following last month's city-wide raid. He said this only scratches the surface with several other cases they're working.
According to Gannon, chemicals from China go to Mexico. Then, two major cartels are mass producing fentanyl and flooding the U.S., including Indianapolis.
They're doing it in deceptive ways.
"What makes it so scary, it's not like the plant-based drugs that we've seen before. It's a synthetic opioid, and it has devastating effects on people. It's 50 times more potent than heroin," Gannon said.
Roughly six out of every 10 pills analyzed by the DEA has a potentially fatal dosage in it, according to Gannon.
"We have to have people in the community step up, talk about it and raise awareness and get people running away from drugs. I don't care if you say, 'I want to use cocaine, or I want to use heroin or I want to use methamphetamine or I want to use edible marijuana.' We've seen instances where fentanyl is being put into all those drugs," Gannon said.
Last year in Marion County, of the more than 800 overdose deaths, fentanyl accounted for more than 600.
Nationally, fentanyl is the number one killer for adults 18 to 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"If you could picture an airliner with 300 people on it crashing every single day, that's about what's happening in our country with losing people because of drug overdoses on a daily basis," Gannon said. "So, it's staggering numbers, and it's devastating. I mean, where would the outrage be if a plane crashed every day with 300 people? That's the type of focus and intensity people have to have with this epidemic that we're facing with fentanyl."
Now, the DEA's focus is to identify more suppliers. Gannon said the public can also play an important role.
"Talk to people in your community. Be a pillar strength and be a difference-maker because we'll go out and we'll work day after day to build cases on these individuals who are destroying our communities and hold them accountable by putting a significant investigation against them," Gannon said. "However, we need the community to come together to be the difference-maker to get out and help people."
Gannon said before the school year starts, now is the time to talk to your kids about the dangers of fentanyl and other drugs.
For resources, click here.