Although Colorado’s recorded fentanyl overdose deaths appear to have leveled off slightly between 2021 and 2022, federal and state law enforcement officials warn people shouldn’t get complacent about the state’s fentanyl crisis.

Numbers are still staggeringly high, the nature of the supply evolves rapidly and cartels that traffic the drug adapt to attract a diverse customer base, according to law enforcement officials Thursday.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times as potent as heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Nearly 1,800 Coloradans died from overdoses in 2022, with state data previously provided to The Gazette estimating 920 of those came from fentanyl.

An official appeared to mistakenly state at a panel Thursday more than 1,800 Coloradans died from fentanyl last year, though an FBI spokesperson later clarified to The Gazette that figure referred to total overdose deaths.

Colorado State Patrol chief Matthew Packard added that nearly 250 pounds of fentanyl have been seized from Colorado’s roads so far in 2023, close to 2022’s number, by June.

Among Colorado’s recorded overdose deaths, numbers provided to The Gazette indicate 920 were from fentanyl in 2022, 912 came from fentanyl in 2021 and 540 were from the opioid in

2020, according to data from the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

Pills containing fentanyl have evolved from counterfeit blue prescription pills called “M30s” to also include pills in a rainbow of colors and variety of shapes stamped with different brand logos as a branding tactic. Symbols stamped on the pills can also serve as codes to signal its potency or its source, said David Olesky, the acting special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain division.

The panelists said the cheap prices of fentanyl pills also concern them, with M30s selling in bulk for as little as 7580 cents each in Colorado.

The panelists said cartels use every avenue available to market and distribute their drugs, from social media to the “dark web” to physical channels such as highways. The Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are top concerns for federal authorities.

“As hard as we want to work to pull this stuff out of our communities to save people’s lives, they’re working that hard as well to get it in,” Packard said.

Olesky said he has seen anecdotally among young people that pills don’t carry the stigma that injecting or smoking drugs do in their minds.

“We all might take our morning vitamin pills or an aspirin, and so the stigma that has been removed from injections and smoking is now a pill that is pretty easily marketable.”

Law enforcement is also concerned about the presence of xylazine in fentanyl with increasing frequency — an animal tranquilizer that illicit drug suppliers claim makes a high last longer. Xylazine is not regulated as a controlled substance, but has no approved use for humans, and does not respond to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.

Clint Thomason, assistant director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, estimated 15%-25% of fentanyl pills tested contain xylazine. But he added xylazine’s regulatory status as a non-controlled substance makes it difficult to pinpoint a more precise figure.

“This is impacting everyone around our country. There’s no demographic,” Olesky said. “More than 109,000 Americans died (in 2022) as the result of a drug-related overdose or poisoning. ... Colorado is not immune from the national trends that we’re seeing.”