WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland and Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration are meeting with families who lost their loved ones to drug poisonings or overdoses on Friday.
The remarks were delivered during the annual DEA National Family Summit on Fentanyl, which brings together families, federal agencies and community prevention groups. Officials say these families are working to prevent others from experiencing this same loss.
According to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose deaths in the United States are close to hitting their lowest levels since 2020.
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The news comes as federal law enforcement officials say they’re making progress in the fight against fentanyl and the larger opioid crisis.
“We’re sick of it, we’re tired of funerals,” April Babcock, whose son Austen died of a fentanyl overdose in 2019, said.
She shared her story with Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Kirstin Garriss while pushing lawmakers to make changes on Capitol Hill.
“I’m not fighting for my son, he’s dead,” Babcock said. “I’m fighting for the living to continue to live. Fentanyl needs to be a household name.”
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The CDC data shows that overdose deaths decreased for the first time in five years in 2023.
While that is progress, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Merrick Garland, said that the fight is far from over.
“Every time we look at the faces of fentanyl in the DEA headquarters’ lobby, we remind ourselves of why we are in this fight,” Garland said Friday.
He added that the statistics of drug overdoses don’t represent the gravity of their loss.
“They do not capture the days and nights spent in mourning, they do not capture the heartbreak that a friend, parent, child or partner’s life has been cut short,” Garland said.
The attorney general also said the Justice Department has been putting more pressure on drug cartels, targeting drug traffickers and manufacturers. In 2024, Garland said the DEA has seized more than 6,100 pounds of fentanyl powder, equal to more than 302 million deadly does.
“We promise that we will carry your loved ones in our heart and in our continued work to end the poisoning and overdose epidemic,” Garland told those gathered at the DEA event.
Federal officials say they’re also working to take more fake prescription pills off the street, with the DEA seizing 47 million fentanyl pills in the past year.
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