News : Attorney General Tom Miller addresses Fentanyl and Opiod use

On Thursday morning, Iowa's Attorney General addressed the opioid and fentanyl use in the last year. "The deaths have been heartbreaking to see, as well as the pain and suffering of those addicted as well as their family and friends," Miller said.

Miller said his office has worked really hard on the issues surrounding the crisis over the last 5 years. He said that his office has challenged and sued some of the distributors and worked with other states. They have sued the three largest distributors, among them Johnson and Johnson that will being in over 18 years 170 million dollars to deal with the opioid crisis. Some of that money will go to the counties.

Focusing on treatment the office hopes that it will help to reduce the crisis in Iowa. The University of Iowa has worked with the office in trying to find a solution.

CDC statistics jumped in 2020-2021 to 100,000 people dying nationwide, most from Fentanyl at 64,000.

In comparison, in 2011 there were 40,000 overdoses with 2-3,000 being from Fentanyl.

If the estimate is correct, Miller said that roughly 426 died in Iowa of overdoses, 273 would be Fentanyl deaths.

Opioids include fentanyl, heroin, prescription medications.

Fentanyl overdoses were 31% in 2016 and 87% currently.

426 died last year from overdoses.

Miller said that what they think happens, is that the manufacturers in China put Fentanyl in because it's cheaper so it's saving the manufacturer money while putting others at risk.

Miller said that the same thing happened with vaped marijuana. They had put in a Vitamin E Isotope because it was cheaper. "Once the isotopes got into the lungs it was terrible for the lungs,and produced terrible illness and sickness," said Miller, "just because they were trying to save a little money."

He said another theory about why the Chinese manufacturers may use Fentanyl is because it gives a quicker and better high and then the user needs more of it, more quickly.

He said what they are trying to also do is to warn the drug users of the threat that they are facing. Miller said that often a heroin or cocaine user isn't aware that fentanyl is even in the drug, and don't understand the risks.