COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time ever, there have been more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in a year in the United States.
“It's disturbing, it disturbs me because we are not going in the right direction,” said Michelle Spahn, the Assistant Special Agent in charge for the Columbus district office for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, 4,000 people died from overdoses in Ohio in 2019, 76% of those were from fentanyl.
“We have our work cut out for us as law enforcement professionals. I think there's a law enforcement component to it, and bringing these individuals to justice that flood our streets with their poison, is absolutely our first priority,” Spahn said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that showed more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period from April 2020 to April 2021, coinciding with the pandemic.
To put that number into perspective, a packed Ohio Stadium seats about the same number of people who died from overdoses.
“They aren't just numbers, it's not just 100,000 people per year that are dying of overdoses. Just remember there are names attached to those individuals,” Spahn said.
Those numbers have nearly doubled in the past five years. Synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl, have been the biggest problem. Spahn said the DEA is working on several educational programs and is trying to arrest as many drug dealers as possible.
“We want to have hope. Hope is the number one thing because we can do our jobs and have passion for it and take these criminals off the street, but it is also getting out into the community as well,” Spahn said.
Fentanyl caused nearly two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period. That is up 49% from the year before, according to the CDC.