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Greg Abbott commits $10 million to combat fentanyl crisis

The Texas governor also announced that he will distribute Narcan in all 254 counties in the state to prevent fentanyl overdoses.

Governor Greg Abbott at the Capitol on Tuesday, January 17, 2023.

Greg Abbott / Cordon Press.

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

Greg Abbott announced Thursday that he will allocate $10 million to combat the fentanyl crisis. The initiative, which he announced during the statewide One Pill Kills campaign in Austin, aims to educate Texas residents and teach them how to prevent, recognize and reverse fentanyl poisonings. To that end, the governor launched a multimedia awareness initiative through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

This is not the only proposal Abbott presented at the summit. He also announced a plan to ensure that each of the state's 254 counties will have the drug naloxone (Narcan). This spray is one of the few that are effective in combating an overdose of this drug.

Fentanyl is the "deadliest drug threat in Texas"

In response, the governor assured that he would arrange for the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to provide this medication. By doing so, he will try to solve the fentanyl problem in the state, something to which, he said at a press conference, the Biden Administration is not paying much attention:

Thanks to President Joe Biden and his reckless open border policies, the historic levels of fentanyl flooding across our border remains the single deadliest drug threat Texas and our nation have ever seen. With five Texans losing their lives every day to this clandestine killer, I launched our statewide 'One Pill Kills' campaign last fall to combat the growing fentanyl crisis wreaking havoc on innocent Texans and communities across our state.
I thank HHSC for their hard work to raise awareness of fentanyl poisonings and prevention, as well as the Office of the Attorney General and TDEM for securing and implementing the distribution of NARCAN to every county in Texas. I am proud to be here today with so many strong voices leading the fight against the fentanyl crisis in Texas communities. Together, we will save more innocent lives from being lost to the scourge of fentanyl.

Just The News reported that fentanyl poses a threat not only in the country, but especially in Texas. In 2022, more than 2,000 Texans died from an overdose of this drug. What is even more worrisome is early data from the state's Department of State Health Services which claims that, in Texas, there was a 500% increase in deaths related to this drug since 2019.

This was one of the reasons Abbott created Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative in the state. Thanks to it, state law enforcement has seized more than 380 million doses of fentanyl since March 2021. The governor's office claimed that amount is more than enough to "kill every citizen of the United States."

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