SALT LAKE CITY — The presence of fentanyl in the U.S. and right here in Utah continues to surge.
The Rocky Mountain DEA just wrapped up an operation on the west coast where agents say there confiscated an amount of Fentanyl that could have led to more than 800,000 deadly doses.
“The volume of fentanyl pills and powder hitting our communities here in the Salt Lake Valley has risen exponentially,” said Dustin Gillespie, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Salt Lake City District Office.
For the past year, Gillespie said agents have been under ‘Operation Last Mile.’
“It targeted the last mile of distribution, which is how we came up with the name Operation Last Mile. And by that, I mean the retail level," Gillespie said. "Those retail level distributors that we have a lot of in our communities and we certainly have a lot of here in the Salt Lake Valley.”
He said they were essentially targeting the drug dealers on the streets.
“We seized collectively over 25 pounds of fentanyl powder and over 365,000 fentanyl big pills containing fentanyl,” he said.
The operation wrapped up on May 1, two days before fentanyl testing strips were legalized in Utah on May 3rd following the latest legislative session.
“The fentanyl test strips which are, which have become legalized here in the state, I think to provide a good option for individuals who are willing to use them,” said Gillespie, “And that's the catch, are individuals willing to get their hands on the fentanyl test strips and actually apply them to a pill that they're unsure of?”
Over at the Utah Harm Reduction Coalition, a safe syringe exchange and overdose prevention group, Founder and Executive Director Mindy Vincent said they’ve already been using the strips.
“At first, I was actually surprised to learn that they were illegal because I don't think any of us really knew that right away that they were considered paraphernalia,” said Vincent.
She said the state supplied her organization with strips through a pilot program, saying that the program of giving clients the strips has been incredibly successful.
“People, when they're given the opportunity to make better choices for their health, when people know what they're consuming, people tend to do it much more responsibly and people do make good choices for their health, even when they're on drugs when they're given the opportunity to do so,” said Vincent.
For Vincent, the issue hits home. She was addicted to methamphetamine for 17 years.
“If I had bought meth from somebody and it had been laced with fentanyl, there's no doubt it would kill me because I have no tolerance to opiates,” she said, “So fentanyl testing strips back when I was using, they could have definitely saved my life.”
She said she hopes the strips save others too as more and more fentanyl is being laced with drugs in our state.
“No one deserves to die because they use drugs,” said Vincent, “I have buried my big sister from an opiate overdose. Over 40 of my clients have died and the world is a darker place without every single one of those human beings.”
