DEA makes effort to keep overdose rates down

EL PASO, TEXAS (KVIA) -- Deaths from drug overdoses, as a whole in the United States, have declined over the past few years, but fentanyl overdoses are still a concern for the DEA here in El Paso.

ABC-7 spoke with Jeffery Castillo with the DEA about their Fentanyl Overdose Response Team, or FORT, which was created back in May of 2022 after they noticed an increase in fentanyl overdoses.

FORT is made up of various agencies, including the DEA, FBI, and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. They respond to every single overdose that's suspected to be fentanyl related. They meet with the families involved and begin their investigation from there.

Castillo said fentanyl related deaths increased in El Paso from 2017-2023, and a 20% increase from 2022-2023 alone, and spoke on what he thinks that increase might be caused by.

"The increase in fentanyl production and fentanyl coming into the country as well as addiction. Fentanyl is a very addictive substance. And once you take it, you can you've potentially set yourself to become addicted."

From 2017 to 2019, deaths from drug overdoses in the united states were around 66,000 per year. But in 2020, that number skyrocketed to nearly 95,000.

Those numbers continued to rise, hitting a peak of over 111,000 in a 12 month period from August 2022 until August 2023.

After that, there was a sharp decline, however. From July of 2023 to July of 2024, deaths came down to around 90,000. In El Paso, fentanyl related deaths have followed a similar trend. Just 12 deaths in 2017, to nearly 100 in 2022.

But Castillo and the DEA are confident they can keep those numbers down.

"The whole El Paso Police Department agrees with us that this is a poison that is plaguing our society. And and on the state side it's considered a murder. Like we say, one pill can kill. You never know how much that next pill is going to have. You may have more than your body can tolerate."