SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A former top official with the DEA alerted area residents Feb. 15 that fentanyl is “the biggest monster that we’ve ever had in drug law enforcement.”
Speaking at a fentanyl awareness and drug prevention forum at Sandy Springs’ Studio Theatre at City Springs, Dan Salter, former DEA Special Agent in Charge, and current director of the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, pleaded for parents to involve themselves in their children’s lives.
“This takes all hands-on deck,” Salter said. “For the parents that are in the room, get to know your kids and what’s going on. Talk to them. Be aware of some of these things.”
The primary purpose of the meeting, one of a number community outreach events hosted by law enforcement agencies across the country, is to bring awareness to the widespread misuse of the popular painkiller, fentanyl, and the rapid increase in deaths and overdoses for users, especially in teens and young adults. Through social media platforms such as Tik Tok, younger users are easily purchasing the deadly narcotic online as user numbers continue to grow.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan also spoke at the event offering his experience and perspectives.
“We [as U.S. Attorney] work primarily to understand what poses the greatest threat to the citizens of our district,” he said. “It’s clear to us that fentanyl plays a huge role in threatening our safety.”
Just last year, more Americans died from drug overdoses and drug poisonings than any other year in the history of the United States, Buchanan said.
Spreading awareness is vital, he said, and he hoped that everyone attending the meeting leaves with their “eyes wide open about what threatens us.”
The presentation included videos from drug experts expressing their…
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