Fortenberry on anti-fentanyl campaign: 'The threshold of death is very thin'

Houston-area law enforcement agencies, along with their state and federal counterparts, have introduced a new campaign to address the spike in fentanyl usage and overdoses in the region, according to a report from Houston ABC affiliate KTRK. A partnership that includes the Houston Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), High-intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA), Council on Recovery and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) spearheaded the "One Pill Can Pill" campaign, the station reported.

Members of those agencies launched the initiative at a press conference on Thursday (March 17). They were joined by Chelsea Chanslor, a 22-year-old woman who survived a fentanyl overdose to bring awareness to an emerging public health crisis in the U.S., KTRK reported.

"(In 2021), we had 466 deaths at the hands of fentanyl, and this is a dramatic increase over what they have seen in the past," Paul Fortenberry with the Harris County District Attorney's Office said, according to the station. "A packet of Sweet 'N Low has 1,000 milligrams. If you divide that Sweet 'N Low packet by 1,000 pieces, and you get two of those, that's what will kill you. One will make you high, one milligram. Two or three milligrams kill you. The threshold of death is very thin."

As part of the campaign, Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported, billboards will be erected in Harris County, other large metropolitan areas such as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and San Antonio, and the State of Oklahoma to help spread the word about "One Pill Can Kill."

Thirteen of those billboards will be seen throughout Houston city proper, according to the station.

The billboards will include a helpline for those struggling with fentanyl and their loved ones and friends can call.

Texas DPS Trooper Jason Taylor said his department's crime labs registered 500 submissions of fentanyl in less than 12 months last year, KTRK reported. 

"DPS also seized in one year, 288 million lethal doses of fentanyl in Texas," Taylor said, the station reported.

He adds that the drug kills indiscriminately, pointing out that it's flooding Texas at an alarming rate.

"Drug dealers who kill users by putting lethal doses of fentanyl in counterfeit pills and sell them to unsuspecting buyers should know DPS special agents, our partners here, are conducting investigations beyond roadside stops and beyond seizures to put these individuals in jail and bring them to justice," the trooper said, according to KTRK.

Chanslor recalled being just 13 years old when she first tried fentanyl as a way to cope with a mental illness from which she was suffering, KTRK reported.

She divulged that she has been to the hospital for drug overdoes 14 times in a seven-year span.

The actions of medical staff and even her own mother have saved Chanslor from certain death, the station reported.

"This is an epidemic in our nation, and we need to educate and communicate with our families, with our children, with the people that we work with, people in school, wherever," Chanslor's mother, Colleen Fitzpatrick, said, according to KTRK.