MIDLAND, Texas — Tuesday is fentanyl awareness day, and on Monday local leaders got together to discuss how the community can fight the problem.
With the end of title 42, local law enforcement is worried that the fentanyl crisis could get even worse as more of the drug could be coming through our borders and into the community.
"It is killing your children, as young as twelve years old," said Chief Seth Herman with the Midland Police Department. "We've experienced that in Midland, Texas and Odessa, Texas."
Officials said West Texas is a hub for human trafficking, drug smuggling and drug use.
"Midland-Odessa has always been a narcotics and human trafficking hub, with those products coming up from Mexico and then being dispersed throughout the continental United States," said Herman. "So, there's definitely a layover here for those bulk amounts fentanyl before they move elsewhere. A large amount of that fentanyl stays here."
Herman believes the end of Title 42 could make the problem even worse.
"Using Title 42, CBP and customs have been able to stem that tide somewhat," said Herman. "That goes away on the 11th, and at that point you're looking at numbers going from 5,000 up to 50,000 a day at certain ports of entry. So, it's not going to get better, I can assure you of that."
The best way to fight the fentanyl crisis is education.
"They can get drugs within seconds or minutes, they just post something online, usually its a picture of a plug emoji and that means they're looking for a dealer, it's as simple as that," said Mellessa Brenem with the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
"You could be asking for pills, a percocet, or hydrocodone, or those types of things, and then those pills are laced with fentanyl, and then death can come," said Chief Michael Gerke with the Odessa Police Department.
"Education, and prevention, and suppression from a law enforcement standpoint, those are the only tools available until people just decide they don't need to take illicit drugs to feel better," said Herman.
You can find more information about National Fentanyl Awareness on the DEA website.