FORT WORTH, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott discussed the concern for drug overdoses related to fentanyl and how state entities are trying to curb the problem of drug smuggling over the border.
It came during a news conference Thursday in Fort Worth. Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn and Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steve McCraw joined Abbott for his remarks.
During the news conference, Abbott warned parents and families to talk to their children about the dangers of using illegal drugs like fentanyl. He said that overdose deaths related to drugs laced with fentanyl and seizures of the drug have grown over the past year.
“In all of last year, the Texas Department of Public Safety seized 11 pounds of fentanyl,” Abbott said. “This year, in the first four months, the Department of Public Safety has seized 95 pounds of fentanyl.”
He said that doesn’t include what has been seized by other law enforcement agencies in the state or what may go undetected.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic drug that is about 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It can legitimately be used for severe pain under a doctor’s care, but law enforcement said illegal use of the drug has risen sharply.
"We need parents to visit with their children about this invisible danger, because prevention is the best tool that we have to prevent fentanyl deaths in Texas," Abbott said.
Abbott claimed part of the rise in fentanyl in the state was a consequence of "Biden's open-border policy." In February, the Biden administration began allowing asylum seekers enrolled in the program to cross into the country, according to the Texas Tribune. Biden has also overturned his predecessor's policy that forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims were processed.
But Robert Heyman, a policy consultant for Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso said that claim is just a distraction.
"He wants to distract from a nearly completed legislative session that hasn’t achieved a bunch of the things that he laid out as priority items," Heyman said.
"What’s happening with fentanyl, what’s happening with drug smuggling, is the same story that it’s been for years," he added. "The borders aren’t open, and living on the border, living in a border community, where life has been disrupted by border closures for more than a year - I can’t stress enough how much the border isn’t open."
Regardless, Abbott said during his remarks he believes the solution to the drug problem will only happen with help from everyone.
“Law enforcement alone cannot fix this,” Abbott said. “Families must be part of the solution.”
In March, WFAA spoke with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about how bad the problem is, as overdoses increase in North Texas. They said Mexican cartels are manufacturing and bringing in pills laced with fentanyl.
The head of the DEA in Dallas, Eduardo Chavez told WFAA that just a tiny amount of fentanyl can kill.
Abbott discussed how an 18-year-old in Parker County died in April from an apparent drug overdose. Law enforcement authorities said they believe he crushed and snorted a quarter of a round, blue tablet marked “M30 that we believe was sold to him as Percocet," the Parker County Sheriff's Office said.
In March, two teenagers in Johnson County died from taking counterfeit pills.
In 2020, the Dallas DEA said it confiscated 8.1 million doses of fentanyl.
But seizures of fentanyl in Tarrant County have increased more than 100% in four months, Abbott said. Overall fentanyl seizures in Texas have increased, as well, and the drug in the form of tablets are of the highest concern, McCraw said.
This year, Tarrant County has experienced 60 suspected fentanyl overdoses, Abbott said.
Sheriff Waybourn said in the county they have seen fentanyl decrease in price and said teens and young adults are at risk.
“You do not know what you're taking. It can be a death sentence and it can be a debilitating disease,” Waybourn said.
One way Abbott said he would plant to fight the increase in the drug in the state is to prosecute hard, promising to sign a new law making it a felony to manufacture or deliver the opioid in Texas.
Meanwhile, Waybourn said law enforcement would continue to be vigilant.
“We are going to continue this fight,” he said.