“About seven out of 10 pills that we seize off the streets and send to the [Drug Enforcement Administration] lab ... are all fake pills,” Campbell said.
Over the last year, the U.S. has seen a 15% decline in the number of drug overdose deaths reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Texas, while improving, only saw a 1.67% decline. Just nine states nationwide saw an increase in the number of overdose deaths in that time.
Dr. Allen Dennis, the medical director of Round Rock Surgery Center and a member of the Texas Medical Association, said states such as Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin have seen higher levels of opioid use in the last few decades.
“The drops you have in those states has to do with how much improvement they had to go from. We were honestly in a better off state than they were over the last couple of decades,” Dennis said.
Dennis also said manufactured fentanyl is coming into the U.S. from across the Mexico border, so Texas being the largest border state in the nation is an additional factor to consider, he said.
This year, Texas is expected to see the lowest number of opioid-related deaths since 2020, according to the CDC. Drug overdose deaths decreased in Texas from 5,643 in May 2023 to 5,549 in May 2024—a 1.67% decrease.
About 18 in 100,000 people die annually from an overdose in Texas, compared to the national average of about 29 per 100,000 people, according to a report from the CDC.
The majority of drug overdose deaths can be attributed to illegally manufactured fentanyl being added to other pills, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“There's a huge increase in counterfeit pills. What that means is, if you get a pill off the street, it's likely to ... have fentanyl as part of the drug,” said Marcia Ory, a professor at Texas A&M University School of Public Health and the co-lead of the TAMU opioid task force. “So, before, [what] people talked about was prescription drugs; ... what's killing people [now] are counterfeit drugs that are laced with fentanyl.”
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 79 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2014 and 2,306 in 2023.
In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott launched a $10 million multimedia awareness campaign as a part of his “One Pill Kills” initiative to combat the fentanyl crisis. The initiative through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission educates Texans on how to prevent, recognize and reverse fentanyl poisonings.
The campaign also distributed Naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug also known as Narcan, to all 254 Texas counties through the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
During the 88th Texas Legislative session, there were dozens of bills filed to combat the opioid epidemic, including:
- House Bill 6, which increased the criminal penalty for anyone distributing a fatal dose of fentanyl.
- Senate Bill 867, which allows the distribution of opioid overdose prevention substances, such as Narcan, to Texas universities and colleges.
- Legalize fentanyl test strips
- Mandate the tracking of opioids from manufacturers to patients to ensure the supply doesn’t end up on the street
