The Amount Of Fentanyl In Amarillo & Lubbock Has DEA Concerned

One thing we see a lot of in Amarillo are drug busts. Part of the reason is that it seems to be a hub for them. It's where transfers seem to happen and it's apparently easy to get them into the city.

While it's been a problem for quite some time now, it's becoming an even bigger issue with the introduction of fentanyl to the recreational drug market.

In fact, it's become such a huge problem in the panhandle, specifically Amarillo and Lubbock, that the DEA is now expressing major concern over its presence here.

The numbers in the region are absolutely staggering. In 2023, over 21,000 lethal doses of fentanyl were seized just in Amarillo and Lubbock combined. That's a scary number, but it's about to get worse.

In 2024 SO FAR, over 29,000 lethal doses have been seized in the two cities, and we're only in the middle of June.

The thing that make fentanyl so scary is that just an extremely small amount can kill. No, we aren't talking about an overdose that Narcan can fix. We're talking kill, with no chance of returning.

Other drugs are being laced with fentanyl to give users a different type of high, but a lot of the people producing the drugs haven't quite figured out just how little is needed. They're lacing these other drugs with a touch too much, and it's killing people.

To put this in context, you know those sugar packets you use to put in your coffee? Well, if that packet was filled with fentanyl instead of sugar, it would be the equivalent of over 500 lethal doses of fentanyl.

Considering pills are typically what get laced with fentanyl, kids are finding themselves in bad spots because pills are so commonplace. They see us, and themselves, take pills to fight off illness so they believe taking a pill isn't so bad.

The good news is the DEA has identified where the pills are coming from and the organizations that are trafficking them around West Texas, so it seems we are a step closer to at least slowing down the amount of doses that are running around the Texas Panhandle.

Make sure you are vigilant in talking to your kids about the dangers of taking pills from people they don't know. They could very easily end up with a deadly dose of fentanyl, especially with the prominence of it in the region.