Drug overdoses are at an all time high and violent crime is on the rise nationwide.
The drug enforcement agency or DEA, has launched what it's calling Operation Overdrive to try to fight off this terrifying trend. I recently talked to the special agent in charge for this Addicted in America report.
Jarod Forget is Special Agent in Charge for DEA in Washington DC.
"One thing we're seeing in Washington DC and around the nation is this dramatic, scary increase in overdoses in DC and the nation from 2020-2021 we saw a 30 percent increase in fatal drug overdoses and that's because of fentanyl."
"Operation Overdrive is DEA's effort to really target the drug trafficking networks in our city responsible for distributing the fentanyl on the street.
"Under this effort we are laser focused on looking at particular drug trafficking networks we know exist, the individuals and organizations and we can't do it alone, we do it with our partners with MPD, US attorney's office and other federal partners.
"It's not just the law enforcement, we have to work with community groups, schools, even the workplace, to get the message out about this threat.
"We've seen a decrease in heroine and we've seen an increase in fentanyl, almost completely taking heroine off the street and being replaced with fentanyl, and fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroine and that's been going on the last 2-3 years and at the exact time what happened in the last 2-3 years, Covid 19."
"We see a lot of these drug trafficking networks putting a deadly amount of fentanyl into counterfeit pills and where are young people getting those pills, online on various websites and social media applications like snapchat Instagram and Facebook."
7 News Anchor Alison Starling asks:
"What do you want parents to know about this and what can they do to protect their kids?"
"Number one have a conversation with your children," Forget says.
"A couple clicks of a button, couple taps on your iPhone, go on Snapchat, they're looking to buy oxycodone, but they're getting a counterfeit oxycodone pill with more than 2.2 milligrams of fentanyl and that's enough to kill the average adult or even child."
Starling:
"You all have to sometimes take it to the lab to be sure."
Forget:
"Let's be clear, we can't tell the difference. DEA agents that's what we do for a living, and we can't tell the difference. "
Starling:
"The drug dealers are doing this because it's cheaper and it thins out their supply and they can sell more for cheaper?"
Forget:
"To be frank it's a business model, it's cheaper to make, it's cheaper to produce, it's providing a stronger high which forms addiction and makes repeat customers. Of all the pills we seized at the DEA in 2020, 2 of every 5 pills we seized had a deadly amount of fentanyl."