US-DRUGS-FENTANYL-HEALTH-SOCIAL

Ray Donovan, Chief of Operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), stands in front of "The Faces of Fentanyl" wall, which displays photos of Americans who died of a fentanyl overdose, at the DEA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13, 2022. America's opioid crisis has reached catastrophic proportions, with over 80,000 people dying of opioid overdoses last year, most of them due to illicit synthetics such as fentanyl -- more than seven times the number a decade ago. "This is the most dangerous epidemic that we've seen," said Ray Donovan, chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). "Fentanyl is not like any other illicit narcotic, it's that deadly instantaneously." (Photo by Agnes BUN / AFP) (Photo by AGNES BUN/AFP via Getty Images)