fentanyl
“We’re not trying to scare them. We just want to save a few lives.”
More than 250 pounds of the deadly drug worth $3.5 million was picked up by authorities in Arizona.
Two responding police officers in Chico, California, were also hospitalized after feeling effects of the drug, authorities said.
The cartels decided not to push fentanyl in the state until recently.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
"In the midst of the worst opioid epidemic in U.S. history, the FDA seems to be operating in a vacuum, without regard for optics or public health," one psychiatrist said.
Almost half of the nearly 200 U.S. drug overdose deaths every day involve fentanyl.
New estimates indicate that the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl continues to drive the crisis.
The synthetic drug fentanyl is sweeping the country. It appeared in these cities first -- and people who use it tend to share needles.
The iconic singer died from an overdose of fentanyl in April 2016.
As two cities in Massachusetts struggle with an outbreak, the powerful synthetic fentanyl may be mostly to blame.