Fentanyl is sometimes used by hospital doctors when necessary, in safe dosages.

Fentanyl is the No. 1 killer of Americans ages 18-45. Fentanyl-related deaths in Texas increased over 600% from 2019 to 2023, taking the lives of more than 7,000 innocent Texans in just 4 years. This crisis affects the lives of everyone, tearing away friends and family members from their loved ones. Knowing how to recognize the signs of fentanyl poisoning and having open conversations about the dangers of fentanyl can help save a life.

WATCH: Texas Is Fighting The Fentanyl Crisis

Last year, Governor Abbott signed four pivotal laws to combat the growing national fentanyl crisis:

House Bill 6 (Goldman/Huffman) creates a criminal offense of murder for supplying fentanyl that results in death, enhances the criminal penalty for the manufacturing or delivery of fentanyl, and requires deaths caused by fentanyl to be designated as fentanyl toxicity or fentanyl poisoning on a death certificate. Current law does not require such classification on a death certificate, with most fentanyl-related deaths currently classified as an overdose.

House Bill 3144 (Lujan/Campbell) establishes October as Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Month to help increase awareness of the dangers of fentanyl.

House Bill 3908 (Wilson/Creighton), also known as Tucker’s Law, requires public schools each year to provide research-based instruction on fentanyl abuse prevention and drug poisoning awareness to students grades 6 through 12. The bill also requires the Governor to designate a Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Week.

Fentanyl in powder form.

Senate Bill 867 (West/Rose) allows the distribution of opioid antagonists, including life-saving Narcan, to Texas colleges and universities to prevent opioid poisonings.

NOTES:  Fentanyl and its deadly potential is the main reason this reporter always mentions the drug-related indictments each two weeks after the Grand Jury meets.  At its Sept. 25 meeting, the Grand Jury indicted none for Fentanyl use or distribution. They did indict 15 people on Methamphetamine charges, 4 people on Cocaine charges, 1 person on a Heroin charge, and 2 for violations of  prescription-required (opioid) medications.

Grayson County District Attorney Brett Smith said that Fentanyl deaths have increased 600% in the past few years. And Texas Senator John Cornyn reported the same statistics in a recent newsletter. He and others have co-authored a bill titled The Fight Illicit Pill Press Act. Cornyn said in the newsletter that in 2023 the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced pills. With these illicit drugs on the rise, many cartels have gained access to the same type of pill presses used by pharmaceutical companies in order to create counterfeit pills that are often indistinguishable from real medication. This act would require medication manufacturers to put an identifying number on all the medications they product. This act, he said, would help DEA track and seize pill presses used to manufacture fentanyl-laced pills.

Smith  also said that One Pill Kills information is available to all families. One source Online is through the Texas Health & Human Services Website (click here:  OnePillKills)   The Website says that “Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.”

According to Smith and several physicians, it could be important for anyone to possess the Fentanyl-reversing medication called Narcan. This is prescribed to Police and Paramedic stations, hospitals, schools, and other such locations which could save a life by using it.