DALLAS (NewsNation) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is preparing to announce a major plan in his fight against what he calls a “fentanyl crisis.”

The latest federal data showed fentanyl killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2021, making it the leading cause of death in people ages 18-45.

“When you’re looking at 70,000 deaths every single year, that tells you that this is an extremely huge problem that affects every single part of our society,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said. “We have to look at this and we have to go after this.”

Abbott has made the fight against fentanyl one of the top priorities of his third term.

On Thursday, the governor will host a summit for his campaign “One Pill Kills.” At the summit, law enforcement, health care workers, advocates and families whose lives have been forever changed after losing, or nearly losing, a loved one to fentanyl will tell their stories.

The deadly drug is affecting Americans across the nation.

Last semester, nine students overdosed on fentanyl in one school district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Three of those kids died.

DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in charge Eduardo Chavez helped track down the alleged dealers, who Chavez said were peddling pills at a home just blocks away from one school.

“The substance of the pills is so ridiculously addictive and so ridiculously deadly, layer that with some profit where you can maybe buy some pills for less than $10 and sell for three times as much, it is a perfect storm when it comes to being able to lure or attract young people,” Chavez said.

Judd said it’s important that there is a multilayer approach to combating the fentanyl crisis, and that includes warning Americans about the deadly drug with the “One Pill Kills” slogan. By doing this, he said, they can go after fentanyl at the same time as combating the border crisis and mental health crisis.

Veronica Kaprosy, who lost her 17-year-old daughter to fentanyl poisoning, will be among those sharing their stories at Abbott’s “One Pill Kills” summit.

Kaprosy said her daughter Danica thought she was taking a Percocet to manage her pain and insomnia when it was actually a fentanyl pill disguised as Percocet.

Kaprosy explained that she had had the drug conversation with her daughter plenty of times, and that Danica knew of the risks. However, Kaprosy said she feels like Danica was heavily influenced by a friend to try the fake Percocet pills that ended up killing her.

“Danica could have said no, but you know, she didn’t. She felt the pill was helping her and she took it,” her mother said. 

Abbott tweeted that Texas law enforcement has seized more than 380 million fentanyl doses, which would be enough to kill every man, woman and child in the country.

The governor has blamed the rise in fentanyl to problems at the border. He has designated the cartels as terrorist organizations, and has asked President Joe Biden to do the same.

Judd said, “When you look at the cartels, when you look at how they generate profit, they do not care about life, they do not care if people die. What they care about is how much money they can possibly make.”

Last fall, the White House announced it was awarding $1.5 billion to all state and territory health departments to address substance abuse issues, and $275 million to support law enforcement, and imposing sanctions on certain individuals who run international fentanyl supply chains.

In March, Biden released his FY 2024 budget request to Congress, calling for a historic investment of $46.1 billion for National Drug Control Program agencies.

“The FY24 budget request continues the Biden Administration’s trend of calling for dramatic investments to address the overdose epidemic driven by fentanyl,” a White House news release stated.

The budget also includes an increase in funding for efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs and efforts to stop drug trafficking.

Texas state lawmakers have been working on increasing the penalties for people who traffic fentanyl.
The state Senate just passed a bill that would classify fentanyl-related deaths as poisonings instead of overdoses.