鈥業t just takes one time:’ Fentanyl鈥檚 deadly toll across WA, US shows no signs of slowing
Jun 21, 2022, 6:24 AM | Updated: 10:52 am
Most drug users today understand that when they smoke or inject narcotics, there鈥檚 a good chance they contain fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 in meth right now, it鈥檚 in heroin,鈥� said one Snohomish County woman, 51, who鈥檚 remaining anonymous due to her connections with local law enforcement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 in everything right now. It鈥檚 going around.鈥�
She鈥檚 been addicted for more than half her life, and has watched as the body count grows from the deadly invasion of fentanyl.
鈥淎t least 15 that I know,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 girl actually, her and her mom died within a week of each other.鈥�
There seems to be no slowing the rapid surge in deadly overdose deaths involving fentanyl in Washington state.
In King County alone, 396 people died after using the opioid in 2021. That鈥檚 compared with 170 in 2020. Back in 2015, the county recorded .
Statewide, the Washington Health Department says more than 2,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2021, the most on record, and about a 66% increase compared to .
One of those recent deaths was 20-year-old Jayden Barker.
His aunt, Kendra Kruse, placed photos of her nephew surrounded by candles and flowers on a mantle in her living room.
鈥淗e played sports, loved soccer, played football,鈥� Kruse said. 鈥淪traight A student. Had scholarships set up.鈥�
Kruse says a couple of years after graduating from Everett’s Cascade High school, Jayden started experimenting with painkillers. About six months later, he came across a bad batch.
鈥淚 think it was a quarter of what he thought was a Percocet, and that鈥檚 all it took was a quarter. Kruse said. 鈥淚t probably wouldn鈥檛 have even taken that much, but he never woke up.鈥�
Fentanyl doesn’t care if you’re a long-time addict or a kid who鈥檚 newly hooked. 2021 was a record-setting year nationwide for deaths from overdoses, and about .
Frank Tarentino is a D-E-A Special Agent in Charge, overseeing the Seattle Field division, but he’s a father first, and tells his own kids:
鈥淭his idea that you can decide to experiment and it鈥檚 going to be okay is not what it used to be. It鈥檚 lethal,鈥� Tarentino said.
Imagine 15 grains of salt, Tarentino said. That tiny amount of fentanyl is enough to kill, and it’s in nearly every street drug. Or it鈥檚 disguised as blue pills that look like they came from a pharmacy, which is how so many young people end up dead.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seizing an enormous amount of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl,鈥� Tarentino said. 鈥淲e seized 1.4 million pills in two months. That鈥檚 enough to kill every person in Seattle.鈥�
Despite the DEA and border patrol’s attempts to thwart smuggling, little is being done on the other side of the border by the Mexican government to stop the cartels.
They produce it in clandestine warehouse labs with chemicals brought in from China and India. And, the smugglers play games with law enforcement to slip by, said Ali Bradly, an independent journalist embedded with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement.
鈥淲e have so many people crossing our border every single day and we don鈥檛 have the agents to do that job and also be out in the field,鈥� Bradley said.
Border agents are encountering more people than ever before trying to cross the border; .
鈥淐artels know when they create these humanitarian crises, that鈥檚 when they鈥檙e pushing across people in the unmanned areas,鈥� Bradley said. 鈥淭hat is how the drugs that are brought in that are not caught at our checkpoints are also being smuggled through.鈥�
Border Patrol just released April’s drug seizure numbers. Agents stopped more than 1,200 pounds of fentanyl from entering the U.S, .
But they can’t catch it all, and that leaves the clean-up to the DEA… and local women and men in blue.
On a recent morning, the Snohomish County Regional Task Force pursued a drug bust operation, where a caravan of police units pulled up on a trailer, where a suspected drug dealer lives.
The man they find is a low-level dealer, who鈥檚 been busted before, about five years ago.
But when the pandemic hit, and he lost work doing construction, he needed extra income to support his family back in Mexico.
He said he makes about $150 extra per day. The drugs he sells comes from Mexico, and are delivered to him through a middle man in Seattle.
He claimed to not know the pills he sells contain fentanyl, only saying, 鈥渁 lot of people are looking for [them].鈥�
Inside the man鈥檚 trailer, police find plastic baggies filled with hundreds of the pills. Commander Jay Baines, who oversees the task force, says, 鈥渆very one of those could represent an overdose鈥� every one of those pills could kill somebody.鈥�
Baines said almost all of the fentanyl they seize originates from Mexico.
鈥淭he crime down there and the cartel and the way they run things, I鈥檓 sure the officials in government down there are scared to death of them,鈥� said Baines. 鈥淎nd for the Mexican government to take ownership in that I think is an uphill battle for the United States and our borders, and it鈥檚 more open than ever.鈥�
And so the fentanyl continues to pour in and overdoses pile up.
Kendra Kruse, who lost her nephew Jayden Barker to fentanyl, knows there’s no one single solution, but she says education and awareness are key, especially among the youngest potential victims.
鈥淚t just takes one time of taking a pill that a friend of theirs who they trust gives it to them,鈥� said Kruse. 鈥淎nd, that鈥檚 it. They鈥檙e done.鈥�
