(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spoke more about the impact fentanyl has had in Colorado throughout the years.

On Tuesday, April 29, law enforcement and public health partners across the country recognized National Fentanyl Awareness Day. According to the DEA, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, spiked from 2011 through 2021.

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic.

Rocky Mountain Field Division (DEA RMFD) Special Agent Jonathan Pullen talked to FOX21 News on Tuesday and noted that the drug kills almost 100,000 Americans each year.

“In Colorado, five people overdose and die every single day in the state, three of those from fentanyl,” Pullen said.

In December 2024, Colorado officially surpassed the previous record set in the state for fentanyl pills seized, totaling 2.7 million confiscated by the DEA RMFD. The previous record set in 2023 was 2.61 million fentanyl pills.

“Fentanyl is in every community,” Pullen said previously. “It doesn’t matter what race you are, what ethnicity you are, whether you come from a good neighborhood or a bad neighborhood, what kind of car you drive—fentanyl is in your neighborhood.”