The new campaign’s promotional material states that in fiscal year 2025, 29 percent of fentanyl pressed pills contained a “potentially lethal dose.” This is down from about 50 percent in 2024, and about 76 percent in 2023.

In previous years the agency has announced this data in a more direct way, but it appears that the December 3 press release about launching Fentanyl Free America is serving as the announcement for 2025. The “29 percent” statistic has already been added to various DEA pages like Campus Drug Prevention and Just Think Twice, but as if it’s always been there, even though some of the accompanying data have not been updated from previous years.

The DEA did not directly answer Filter‘s inquiries about whether this was the first time the data had been released to the public, but simply pointed to its December 3 press release. It would make sense if the agency has lost interest in promoting the data, now that it doesn’t look as scary. It does tend to make these announcements toward the end of the year.

Around 2016, the DEA began using its “deadly dose” narrative—you know the one, about how just 2 mg of fentanyl, an amount small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, is potentially lethal for the average American adult. In 2017 the agency’s lab testing showed that about one out of 10 fentanyl pressed pills contained 2 mg or more. That figure climbed steadily until 2023, when it peaked at more than seven out of 10 fentanyl pressed pills, or 76 percent.

Then, in 2024, lab data appeared to show the purity in fentanyl pressed pill supply reversing course—dropping the “deadly dose” estimate to five out of 10 pills. Now it’s less than three out of 10.

The “deadly dose” premise itself is not sound, but if you uncouple that concept from the rest of these updates then they’re useful for understanding the current trajectory of the unregulated fentanyl supply, and what dose manufacturers appear to be aiming for.

The purity of fentanyl powder samples tested by the DEA in 2025 was 10.3 percent. (This isn’t saying that 10.3 percent of powder samples contain a “deadly dose”—it’s an “apples and oranges” situation. The DEA is explaining pills one way and powder another.) That’s down from 11.36 percent in 2024 and 19.5 percent in 2023, or about a 10-percent decrease and 47-percent decrease, respectively.

Instead of telling the public the odds of a fentanyl pressed pill containing at least 2 mg, a more useful way for the DEA to present the data each year would be to tell the public the average purity, which is what the agency is doing for powder samples.

For example, take the 2024 “deadly dose” update since it happened to be five out of 10 fentanyl pressed pills. The takeaway should not be that there’s a 50-percent chance these pills will kill you, because that’s not necessarily useful to anyone, but that the dose manufacturers seem to be aiming for is about 2 mg and there remains a huge margin of error. 

“Poly-drug organizations” sounds vaguely like it might mean something new, but it appears to just be referencing the existence of meth and cocaine.

“The threat of poly-drug organizations … that traffic a portfolio of drugs opposed to a single substance became even more apparent during Operation Fentanyl Free America,” the DEA stated in its press release. “Aside from producing less potent fentanyl, the cartels have increasingly diversified their operations in an attempt to minimize their risks and maximize profits.”

“Poly-drug organizations” sounds vaguely like it might mean something new, but it appears to just be referencing the existence of meth and cocaine.

Thirty DEA field divisions—23 domestic and seven foreign—”initiated Operation Fentanyl Free America in October,” apparently by doing the same or slightly more drug enforcement than they were doing before. Their individual press releases have been trickling in a few at a time, and while most have not elaborated further about “poly-drug organizations,” St. Louis and Omaha stated that this threat “was evident in October with the seizure of more than __ pounds of methamphetamine and nearly __ pounds of cocaine” across their respective field divisions.

Mostly the information the DEA wants the public to know is that as of December 1, it’s seized over 45 million fentanyl pressed pills and more than 9,320 pounds of fentanyl powder, and gotten 347 million “potentially deadly doses” off the streets.

The DEA will always say this stuff, and it will never mean anything. The drug supply is not finite. It hasn’t decreased by 45 million pills. Picture the DEA standing in a little boat, bailing out water with a little bucket, continuously announcing how many gallons it has removed as if those are the numbers that matter.

Top and inset images via United States Drug Enforcement Administration

The post Fentanyl Pill Purity Has Dropped by Nearly Half Since 2024, Per DEA Data appeared first on Filter.

“They are now putting methamphetamine in a pill form,” said United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi at a July 15 press conference. “First time we’ve seen that. A pill form. Now, a pill form of methamphetamine might not kill you instantly, but it can get you so addicted to meth that it can destroy your life. Instantly.”

This is definitely not the first time Bondi or any federal representative has seen that. The DEA has been announcing distribution and trafficking arrests related to these pills for years, going back to before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024 it declared meth pressed pills had become “an established and accepted form of the drug.” But historically the agency has referred to them as counterfeit Adderall pills.

While chaotic use may develop quickly with many things—not just drugs—the idea that certain drugs are so habit-forming that people become addicted the first time they try them is a myth.

In recent months there’s been an increase in meth seizures at the US-Mexico border, news which may not have had enough shock value on its own merits. So now we have meth pills.

“We are seeing a disturbing trend,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy at the same press conference. “Cartels are now producing methamphetamine pills. Started seeing it in 2024 at a tremendous amount. We’ve already seized more methamphetamine pills this year than we did the entire year of 2024.”

The press conference was a joint event for the DOJ and DEA to share updates on the “Take Back America” initiative, covering drug seizures and other enforcement efforts in the first half of 2025.

“These are made to look like popular drugs that our youngest men and women want. Our college-age students,” Murphy said. “This is an effort by the cartels, a deliberate effort. Our young men and women are not seeking out methamphetamine pills. They are not seeking to get that. Unfortunately they’re being deceived into a life of potential addiction.”

The DEA has also been promoting a new interview in which Murphy told ABC News that “Methamphetamine is by far the most coveted drug” and it’s “what people want,” but maybe this is no longer the college demographic. At one point during the July 15 press conference Murphy said that “from a national security standpoint,” we could not allow so many young people to keep dying of overdose because they that’s who makes up our military forces.

The press conference also provided both agencies an opportunity to continue an ongoing schtick where they see how heavily they can imply that meth pressed pills contain fentanyl, but without actually saying it.

“Fentanyl remains the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Fentanyl and methamphetamine together are toxic evidence the cartels have no value of life,” Murphy said. Bondi pointed to a posterboard showing a photo of a pill labeled “Fake Adderall” and said, “These are laced with drugs that could kill you.”

Meth is sometimes found in pills sold as MDMA, in addition to those sold as Adderall. But if the DEA had seized even one shipment of meth pressed pills that contained fentanyl, they’d have probably put up billboards about it.

Top image via Department of Justice. Inset image (cropped) via Drug Enforcement Administration/YouTube.

The post “First Time We’ve Seen That” Feds Say of Meth Pills They’ve Seen for Years appeared first on Filter.