The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned of a surge in mass overdose events involving fentanyl, a highly addictive and deadly drug, across the United States, stating that the drug is killing Americans at an “unprecedented” rate. Mass overdose events are described by the DEA as those involving three or more overdoses occurring within the same location and within a close period of time. In a letter to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies on April 6, DEA administrator Anne Milgram said there had been at least seven mass incidents since January in which a total of 58 people overdosed, and 29 had died due to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat acute pain but now widely used as a recreational drug. The overdoses occurred in states including Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, and Florida and Milgram noted that many of the victims had been unaware that they had been ingesting fentanyl. Milgram cited one …