The CDC says more than 105,000 Americans die from drug overdoses between October 2020 and October 2021, 66% of them related to fentanyl.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -The CDC says more than 105,000 Americans die from drug overdoses between October 2020 and October 2021, 66% of them related to fentanyl.

“Let me put it in perspective for you, how many people sit at a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium for one game, that’s over 75,000 people in a game, you would have to fill that stadium once. With all the employees all the support people on the outside, people passing through I-70 to number the amount of deaths we have a year,” said Daniel Neill, HIDTA.

They say Kansas isn’t immune.

”I hope this shocks you, but in a three month period of time, the state of Kansas has had over 2,500 overdoses,” he explained.

To reverse the numbers, 28 northeast Kansas law enforcement agencies announced a partnership with the drug enforcement administration, called “One Pill Can Kill”.

• Auburn Police Department

• Baldwin Police Department

• Coffey County Sheriff’s Office

• Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office

• Emporia Police Department

• Garnett Police Department

• Geary County Sheriff’s Office

• Horton Police Department

• Midwest HIDTA

• Jackson KS County Attorney

• Jackson KS County Sheriff’s Office

• Junction City Police Department

• Kansas Bureau of Investigations

• Kansas Highway Patrol

• Kansas State University

• Kansas University

• Lawrence Police Department

• Lyon County Sheriff’s Office

• Osage County Sheriff’s Office

• Prairie Band Pottawatomie Police Department

• Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office

• Riley County Police Department

• Shawnee County Attorney

• Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office

• Shawnee County Medical Examiner

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Kansas

• Wamego Police Department

• Washburn University Police Department

“Our state and local partners are seizing increasing amounts of fentanyl, our division seized a record amount in 2021,″ said Michael Davis, DEA.

The DEA says traffickers are distributing fentanyl in fake pills, marketed as real prescription medication, Shawnee County is no exception.

“In 2021, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office drug enforcement unit seized over eleven hundred pills containing fentanyl, local law enforcement responded to numerous calls involving overdoses in situations that have involved fentanyl,” said Sheriff Brian Hill.

Law enforcement and the DEA hope by sharing data, intelligence and resources, they can keep fentanyl out.

“Target and arrest the people distributing the fake pills, reduce the supply of counterfeit pills coming into northeast Kansas, arrest the people who are causing the deaths and harm and reduce the command by community awareness of the danger,” said Davis.

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