WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration is working to combat the fentanyl problem across the country, including in the DMV. Officials blame the cartel, saying the dangerous drugs are coming across the border from Mexico, and landing in the hands of many children.
On Wednesday, Loudoun County Schools announced there have been 10 student overdoses impacting six schools, just a little more than two months into the school year. In at least four of those cases, officials say Narcan, an overdose reversal drug was needed.
Jarod Forget is the special agent in charge of the DEA's Washington Bureau. Forget says the students are unknowingly taking these drugs and ending up with potentially deadly fake pills.
"They think they're taking a Percocet or Xanax, thinking it's going to help them study and what they're getting is a fake pill," he said.
In 2022, the DEA reported seizing 120,000 fake pills in Virginia alone. The agency says that amount was enough to kill 54% of the population in the Commonwealth. So far in 2023, the agency has already seized three times that amount, with two months still left in the year.
Local jurisdictions have also recently seized large numbers of fake pills. Last month investigators in Stafford County took 35,000 suspected fentanyl pills off the street during one arrest.
In Prince William County, during investigations in October, detectives seized a combined total of 4,400 fentanyl pills. Officials say those seizures likely prevented a number of overdoses in the community.
The pills seized by local jurisdictions are processed by DEA chemists at a lab in Maryland and tested for fentanyl. The local lab is responsible for testing drugs seized in nine states in the region. The agency says seven out of every 10 pills seized contains a deadly amount of fentanyl. Experts say only 2mg of fentanyl is enough to kill somebody. The amount is so small it can fit at the end of a pencil.
"These aren't chemists in the cartel making these pills," Foget said. "They're clever enough to make them look like legitimate pills, but there's no quality control of how much fentanyl they're putting in a particular pill."
DEA officials along with local law enforcement say this problem needs to be attacked from all ends, urging parents and schools to have conversations with young people about the dangers of taking drugs.