Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody mentioned this Halloween could be the “scariest” in her lifetime resulting from efforts by Mexican cartels to unfold the lethal opioid fentanyl.
“This could be the scariest Halloween in my lifetime,” she mentioned at a Tuesday press convention at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. “I have no doubt that the cartels are trying to purposefully target children at a younger and younger age to get them addicted, which will ensure consistent profits.”
Moody warned the drug comes in rainbow colours and that cartels are sneaking it into the U.S. in candy packaging.
Authorities throughout the nation have seized thousands and thousands of {dollars} of the bright-colored fentanyl, some of which has been in toy and candy packing containers.
FLORIDA AG MOODY WARNS PARENTS OF ‘VERY REAL’ THREAT OF RAINBOW FENTANYL THAT RESEMBLES CANDY
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody speaks throughout a roundtable dialogue at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami’s Coral Way neighborhood on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
((Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service by way of Getty Images))
“Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram warned in August.
While fentanyl wrapped in candy baggage has not been discovered in Florida, Moody mentioned the potential is there.
She acknowledged that the chances are low for fentanyl to finish up in trick-or-treat baskets, however famous reports of drugs in Halloween candy in different states.
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“Just one pill laced with fentanyl can kill, so parents please talk to your children about the dangers posed by this extremely lethal drug,” she mentioned in an announcement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. final 12 months, deaths from artificial opioids has continued to extend.
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Data present overdose deaths involving opioids elevated to 80,816 in 2021 from an estimated 70,029 in 2020.
The DEA launched the nation’s largest drug prevention efforts on Oct. 23.