Seven of 10 pills seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration are laced with lethal doses of fentanyl, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn told a group of law enforcement officials, health leaders and others during a roundtable Wednesday at Parkland Health in Dallas. Other statistics, such as the DEA seizing more than 80 million pills laced with fentanyl in 2023, rolled off his lips as he addressed the crowd.

Another fact: the cartels are getting rich by illegally producing and selling the opiate, while “our children are dying from this terrible drug,” he added.

Cornyn has had this conversation many times before, but he hopes the new legislation will help combat the fentanyl crisis that has plagued North Texas communities, as documented in Dallas Morning Newsawarded project “Deadly Fake”.

The Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act was introduced Aug. 1 by Cornyn, Chris Coons, D-Delaware, Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, to target pill-pressing machines that have become a critical part of the fentanyl supply chain. According to Cornyn’s office, the cartels have gained access to the same type of pill presses used by pharmaceutical companies and prescription drug stores to mass-produce counterfeit pills that are often indistinguishable from the real drugs.

This bill, which seeks to amend the Controlled Substances Act, would require serial numbers to be engraved on pill presses to make it easier for law enforcement to take action against those who use the machines to produce deadly pills.

Cornyn said the bill is just one part of an effort to address the ongoing fentanyl problem, pointing to other efforts by officials such as expanding access to fentanyl test strips and overdose reversal drugs, and providing training for the military to combat cartels.

“Obviously, we’re out of luck so far, but I hope that these bills will at least be a small step in the right direction to turn the tide of this terrible, terrible epidemic,” Cornyn said.

Melody Gardner, executive director of the North Texas Poison Center at Parkland Health, said fentanyl calls have increased 430% over the past five years. She added that there has also been an increase in positive fentanyl tests in the Parkland emergency department during that same time period compared with the previous year.

Gardner called the data the “tip of the iceberg” because only a small fraction of cases are reported.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said his office is working in the courtroom and directly with law enforcement to combat the crisis.

Since the district attorney’s office began tracking cases in September 2022, there have been 1,457 fentanyl cases, and nearly half have been resolved, he said. Creuzot highlighted recent cases, including when prosecutors obtained a 30-year sentence in the first fentanyl trafficking case tried and convicted by a Dallas County jury, and another defendant who took a plea deal and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the overdose death of a teenager and the overdoses of three others.

“These verdicts underscore the enormous threat fentanyl poses to public health and safety,” he said. “We must continue our collective efforts to educate the public about the risks of opioids and ensure we are doing everything we can to protect our communities from this dangerous and deadly drug.”

Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said his department has seen the devastation fentanyl has wreaked on North Texas, as the FWPD responded to about 489 overdose calls last year, 80 of which resulted in death.

“We know it’s deadly, but I think people need to understand how non-selective fentanyl is,” Noakes said. “Regardless of demographics, socioeconomic status, what ZIP code a person lives in, fentanyl touches so many lives and can touch anyone.”

Noakes said legislation such as the proposed anti-illegal pill press law and a law passed last year that allows someone to be charged with murder if they knowingly manufacture or distribute fentanyl causing death have proven to be key tools in the fight against fentanyl and drug traffickers.

In addition to officials, relatives of fentanyl poisoning victims are undertaking educational activities on the subject.

Amy Brewer of Duncanville and Stephanie Vaughn of Plano spoke about how their daughters’ deaths have affected their families and how they are pushing for more funding to fight the pandemic.

Brewer and her husband Mark Garbade, whose 21-year-old daughter Marissa Ladatto died in 2022 after taking a pill that was a combination of Percocet and fentanyl, founded the nonprofit Marissa’s Voice to raise awareness of the drug and honor her memory.

Vaughn’s 16-year-old daughter, Sienna, died in February 2023 after taking a pill she didn’t know contained fentanyl.

Vaughn said that before Sienna’s death, she knew little about fentanyl or the impact it had on the community she lived in. Now, she and her husband, Ryan, are also working throughout the community to spread awareness about the drug to prevent more deaths like their daughter’s.

“It can happen to good families,” she said. “It can happen to you. Never say, ‘That’s not my child.’”

At one point, Vaughn thanked Cornyn for wearing the bracelet Ryan gave him last year.

Cornyn smiled gently at her as she continued, then pulled up the cuff of his shirt to reveal a gray rubber bracelet, a reminder of what everyone in the room was facing: “One pill can kill.”

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