Inside a DEA special lab where drugs are tested daily
WASHINGTON - FOX 5 DC is getting an exclusive look at a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special lab.
It’s the first time a news crew has been allowed inside in years.
The chemists who work there risk their lives to solve the mysteries of dangerous drugs daily.
Rashida Weathers is the DEA laboratory director. This special lab receives evidence from nine states including Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.
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"What makes this lab unique is that the DEA drug enforcement laboratory system is the premiere drug laboratory system for the world," Weathers said.
Chemists do an average of two to three tests daily and many of the results reveal drugs laced with fentanyl.
"I always wonder if it’s ever going to stop," Weathers said. "It is extremely scary to me that we have to assume that everything that comes in has fentanyl. My goal is to send every one of our chemists home alive at night."
FOX 5 DC witnessed the Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget work on 15 pounds of fentanyl — which could kill 3.5 million people. That’s over half the population of Maryland.
"What we’re seeing is it only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to cause death and what that means is we are seeing a lot of counterfeit pills in our country," Forget said. "Two out of every five counterfeit pills that we see at the DEA contain a lethal amount of fentanyl – that’s 40%. That’s very troubling."
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Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin and the DEA is seeing a concerning rise in overdoses across the DMV, Forget explained.
"In all my almost 20 years with DEA, I’ve never seen anything like this," he said. "This is the deadliest drug. I’ve ever seen in my career."
This is why the DEA is encouraging people to have conversations with their loved ones about the dangers of drugs.
Many kids are buying them on social media apps like Snapchat.