Feds warn stronger doses of fentanyl making its way onto Georgia streets

Drug dealers who make their money from selling fentanyl are making the deadly drug even more potent, federal officials are warning.

Fentanyl is killing more people in Georgia each year, information from the Georgia Department of Public Health shows.

The opioid epidemic made more severe by fentanyl is claiming lives at an alarming rate.

Now one mother wants everyone to know one mistake can end in tragedy.

Maria Petty still remembers the frightening Halloween morning in 2022.

“I don’t go in there and see my son laughing or playing or jumping around. The memory I have going into

that room is my son laying there dead,” Petty said. “When I grabbed his foot, it was cold.”

She found her 16-year-old son Lucas lying on his bed dead.

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Petty said her high schooler bought weed not knowing it was laced with fentanyl.

“I feel like we were so involved in our kids’ lives that this could have never happened to us,” Petty said.

“The fentanyl crisis is the worst drug threat I’ve seen in my 26 years as a DEA agent,” said David Reames, special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Reames said the lethal dosage for fentanyl is about 2 milligrams, but drug dealers are now increasing the amount to 2.4 milligrams.

“70% of the pills DEA seizing nationwide contain greater than 2 milligrams of fentanyl,” Reames said.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for adults ages 18 to 45 in the United States -- more than accidents and cancer.

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