The statistics show that the fentanyl crisis is spreading across the country, killing people of all ages on a daily basis.

But as the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver, Brian Besser didn’t want to bog down his audience with numbers. So he brought out clear bags of about 20,000 fentanyl pills – worth as much as $250,000 – and placed them in front of him.

“Each one of these pills, to me, is a human life,” he said.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock presses for harsher penalties for fentanyl possession

In a news conference Thursday in Colorado Springs, federal and state officials threw out numbers that illustrated a drug that kill more and more people every year, thanks to shifts in the trade, its potency and its low cost of production and transportation. Besser took a different approach.

He wanted to emphasize the importance of punishing those who manufacture and sell the drug. Especially because fentanyl pills can be purchased at a low price; in some cases, as cheap as $30 or $40, which can be more attractive to younger people can’t spend more on expensive drugs, he said.

So, he showed real fentanyl pills to “articulate the gravity of this problem.” Those 20,000 pills would be a significant discovery two years ago, but a task force with the DEA in Denver seized 10 times that amount in the past week, he added.

fentanyl press conference

Still, the stats provided Thursday by state officials were staggering:

? About four people die every day from the drug.

? Last year, the state had 1,829 drug overdoses. More than 1,200 of those deaths involved opioids, a 28% increase from 2020.

? In 2018, the drug contributed to 108 deaths in state. In 2020, there were 540 similar deaths, and though the numbers aren’t available, it is expected that there could be more than 800 deaths last year connected to fentanyl.

Because the drugs can be obtained at a low cost, state officials said, more young people are getting their hands on them. In March, a Colorado Springs woman was arrested after she allegedly sold fentanyl pills to teenage girls, in a deal that led to the death of a classmate at Mitchell High School.

Colorado Springs woman suspected of selling fentanyl to teens advertised drugs on Facebook, affidavit says

Thursday’s press conference at Centennial Hall was another effort to warn the public about the dangerous drug and let parents know there are resources by law enforcement offices to help them the signs of someone using fentanyl. It also announced a partnership between state and federal offices – including Colorado Springs police, the El Paso County Sheriff’s and Coroner’s offices, the DEA and FBI – that they are committed to stop the selling of the drug and punishing those who make and distribute it.

Two milligrams of the drug can kill someone, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said Thursday. “In fact,” he added, “the amount on the tip of a pencil can kill a human being.”

Despite all the statistics presented Thursday, officials wanted to emphasize that human life is at risk when it comes taking fentanyl.

“It can be very abstract,” said Cole Finegan, the U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado, referring to all the fentanyl-related numbers. “We can have conversations about statistics.”

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers joins other state leaders in criticizing fentanyl bill

Finegan also took a personal approach to talk about the drug. He told a story about a family friend whom he had known since he was 5 years old. He was close friends with his son. But at age 32, he died from a drug overdose.

“And I want to say that when you are with the parents of someone who died at 32, it is hard,” Finegan said. “When you see the grief that they carry and will be carrying for the rest of their lives and the agony that’s putting them and their family through, it becomes much more real.”

He added, “It cuts through the abstraction of these conversations.”