DEA sounds alarm on fight against fentanyl
CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KBSI) – The Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) says they are working to educate communities about the fight against fentanyl.
Steven Hofer is a DEA Special Agent for the St. Louis division; Hofer has more than 22 years’ experience as a DEA agent and just recently came back to the Southeast Missouri region after working as an agent in New Orleans. He shares that his passion behind continuing his career in DEA is public safety and keeping dangerous drugs like fentanyl off the streets.
“Fentanyl is the most dangerous, potent substance that I certainly have seen in my more than 20 years of doing this job” says Special Agent Hofer.
The DEA runs an awareness campaign called ‘One Pill Can Kill’ urging Americans to only take prescription medication given to them by a doctor.
“One pill can kill, this goes to the heart of the problem. Of the fentanyl problem that’s out there in the fentanyl overdoses is that a large majority of the time, the overdoses and the poisonings from fentanyl happen because of counterfeit prescription drugs” says Special Agent Hofer.
Hofer shares that although awareness efforts have helped to lower overdose deaths related to fentanyl the CDC continues to report that the leading cause of death to Americans is overdose.
“One of the biggest factors and why we’ve seen, somewhat of a decrease in fentanyl overdose deaths has been the education to Americans. Also, the resources of Narcan being widely available” shares Special Agent Hofer.
For more information on Narcan and resource availability: SAMHSA Opioid Overdose Toolkit
