For the third straight year, drugs are killing far more people in Marion County than car crashes, heart attacks, or homicides.
in 2022, either accidental or intentional - that's 3% more than in 2021. It translates to a heartbreaking 2.3 deaths per day from drugs in Marion County.
The numbers are not surprising, but devastating to the DEA, which is constantly trying to prevent drug danger through awareness and tracking down and arresting dealers. "Oh, it's devastating because I always say, 'One life lost is one too many,'" said Michael Gannon, assistant special agent in charge of the Indianapolis DEA.
Gannon said it's especially concerning right now because more people are dying from a poison that's 50 more times more potent than heroin."These people aren't taking a drug to overdose and die," Gannon said."They're being poisoned and they don't realize that the pill they're getting is laced with a lethal dosage unit of fentanyl."
shows the staggering increase in fentanyl-related deaths. It's a sharp rise over the past seven years, including a 49% spike from 2021 to 2022."You never take a prescription pill, look-a-like or something you're getting from a drug dealer on the street or social media, because you just don't know what you're getting," Gannon said."DEA and our partners, in 2022, we seized over 58 million fake pills and six of every 10 had a potential fatal dosage unit.
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