Sean (00:00):
…. at the DEA Museum at DEA headquarters, welcome. We have folks here today from 27 different states along with the District of Columbia, and we are delighted that some of you took the time and the treasure to come all the way from Hawaii and Alaska. Our theme for this National Family Summit, is Families Make a Difference. Over the course of today, you'll hear from national leaders in our shared work to turn the tide against substance use. You'll work with each other and with experienced facilitators to help you help others heal from the trauma of loss, and we hope to share some insights into how you can be even more effective in your work to help make communities safer so that fewer families suffer this tragedy. We understand that this may be an emotional journey for many, and we have a counselor on hand to support you and a quiet room just down the hall toward that Meridian Suite. Carla Castro Soto, are you here in the room, Carla?
(01:20)
She may already be out in the quiet room. Carla Castro Soto, you're our counselor. Okay. We are grateful to our planning partners that have helped make this National Family Summit happen, and who will be spending time with all of you during the day today. The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, or CADCA, and the Partnership to End Addiction, thank you both. Yes. To begin, it is an honor to welcome our very special guest, the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland. This is the second National Family Summit on fentanyl that the Attorney General has attended. He was with us last year as well. Please welcome back the Honorable, Merrick Garland.
Merrick Garland (02:19):
Good morning. Thank you, Sean, and thank you Ann for your leadership of the extraordinary men and women of the DEA. Thank you for fighting for the victims, the overdose epidemic, and their families. To the families who have joined us today, on behalf of the entire Department of Justice, I want to thank you for being here. Your presence today is an act of love for those you have lost, and it is an act of extraordinary courage in their memory. Although you may have been brought here by pain, you are united by a shared purpose. That purpose is to prevent others from experiencing the heartbreaking loss of loved ones that you have experienced. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. Thank you for honoring them. I want you to know that you are not alone. All of us at the Department of Justice are united in our commitment to honoring the memories of your loved ones through our work.
(03:26)
First, we are united in our commitment to supporting the education and awareness efforts that we know save lives. Second, we are united in our commitment to addressing the public health challenges of addiction and substance abuse by supporting prevention and treatment programs. And third, we are united in our resolve to bring every person responsible for fueling this epidemic to justice. In an American courtroom, we are committed to breaking apart the cartels that are fueling the crisis and to ensuring that there is no hiding place for the criminals responsible for poisoning Americans with drugs. First, we know that awareness and information are some of the most important tools we have. That is because one of the particularly difficult realities of this synthetic opioid epidemic and fentanyl in particular, is that many people who consume it do not know that that is what they are doing. They may not realize that violent drug cartels manufacture and move fake pills that are designed to look like brand-name drugs, but are actually laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl.
(04:49)
And they may not realize that just two milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of a few grains of salt may be deadly. Every day, the extraordinary men and women of the DEA under the leadership of Administrator Milgram work closely with their state and local partners to seize deadly drugs. In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of fake pills that contain a deadly dose of fentanyl. DEA's lab testing found that seven out of every 10 pills it seized contained enough fentanyl to kill someone. So far in 2024, the DEA seized more than 47 billion fentanyl pills, many of them fake prescription pills, and more than 6,100 pounds of fentanyl powder representing more than 302 million deadly doses. Our work to spread awareness about this epidemic and the fact that just one pill can kill is as urgent as it has ever been. Second, as we work to raise awareness about this nearly invisible poison, we are also committed to doing everything we can to support those who are struggling with substance use disorder.
(06:16)
In fiscal year 2024, the Department's Office of Justice programs awarded more than $308 million in grant funding, training, and technical assistance to support prevention, treatment and recovery services. Those awards will support among other things, treatment courts, residential treatment programs, prevention and harm reduction services, evidence-based treatment, services for opioid affected youth, and services that improve quality of care and prevent recidivism. More than a third of the grant program will go to our comprehensive opioid stimulant and substance use program. Through this program, we have increased access to naloxone and medication assisted treatment, provided peer support to overdose survivors and their families and support of law enforcement agencies in identifying people in need of substance use treatment services and helping those people get help. Those challenges are more than any one person should have to shoulder themselves to. The Justice Department is working to ensure that no one is alone.
(07:35)
Finally, the Justice Department is working every day to bring those responsible for this epidemic to justice. We are working to break apart the fentanyl supply chain that has flooded our communities with poison. Over the past three and a half years, the department has zeroed in on the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, the two largest and most violent drug trafficking networks in the world, which have wreaked havoc on American communities. Our agents and prosecutors are working with state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to attack every link in the cartels global chain. We are targeting the cartels leaders, their drug traffickers, their money launderers, their clandestine lamb operators, their security forces, their weapons suppliers, and their chemical suppliers. Since 2021, the Justice Department has extradited more than 50 cartel members from Mexico to the United States. In September, we secured the conviction of the man known as El Manchito, the second in command of the Jalisco cartel. He employed unspeakable violence to build the cartel into a self-described empire by manufacturing fentanyl and flooding the United States with massive quantities of the deadly drug.
Merrick Garland (09:00):
In July, we arrested the man known as El Mayo, a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel. We also arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the Chapitos, a son of the Cartel's other co-founder, El Chapo. We indicted them on drug trafficking, firearms and money laundering charges. In May of this year, the man known as El Nini was extradited from Mexico to the United States. We alleged that El Nini was one of the Sinaloa Cartel's lead sicarios, or assassins, and was responsible for the murder, torture, and kidnapping of rivals and witnesses who threatened the Cartel's criminal trafficking network. And last fall, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and another son of El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering, and firearms charges.
(10:04)
We are also focused on targeting every level of the Cartel's operations that span countries and continents. We know that the fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the death of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China. That is why just last week the Justice Department indicted a China-based chemical company, its director and several of its senior officials on fentanyl charges. Last month, the Justice Department announced charges against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees who we allege are responsible for trafficking precursor chemicals that cartels use to manufacture deadly fentanyl. On behalf of all of us at the Justice Department, we promise that we will not stop working until all those responsible for the deadly fentanyl epidemic face justice. As we work to strengthen the community responses to addiction and to break apart the fentanyl supply chain, we promise that we will never forget those we have lost.
(11:22)
There are many staggering statistics on the fentanyl crisis, but none of them adequately grasp the gravity of the loss. They do not capture the feeling you have told me about the person missing at your dinner table. They do not capture the days and nights spent in mourning. They do not capture the heartbreak that a friend, a parent, a child, or a partner's life has been cut short. But by being here today, you all have decided to be their legacy. You have chosen legacy of compassion, of love, but of determination and resolve. Every time we look at the faces of fentanyl in the DEA headquarters lobby, we remind ourselves of why we are in this fight, and we promise that we will carry your loved ones in our heart, in our continued work to end the poisoning and overdose epidemic.
(13:07)
Although my time as attorney general is coming to an end, I am so proud of the extraordinary men and women of DEA who will continue to work tirelessly to save lives, and I am so proud of all of you. Thank you again for being with us today.
Sean (13:57):
Thank you, Attorney General Garland. For those who have not had a chance to meet and get to know DEA Administrator Anne Milgram yet, she was nominated by the President and confirmed as the head of our agency by the United States Senate in June, 2021. She previously served as the attorney general for the great state of New Jersey. Okay. And more recently as a professor and distinguished scholar at New York University School of Law. Ms. Milgram started her career as a prosecutor with a Manhattan District Attorney's office. Then as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice.
(14:38)
Please help me welcome the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Honorable Anne Milgram.
Anne Milgram (14:46):
Thank you, Sean. Good morning.
Group (14:51):
Good morning.
Anne Milgram (14:54):
It is such a privilege to be with you here today, and I'm so grateful to each and every single one of you. So many of you have traveled from far and you have traveled, filled with love and hope and resilience. And today is an important day for us to be together and to keep going in this fight.
(15:15)
I want to start by saying a moment of thanks to the Attorney General, Merrick Garland. What you see here is what I have the privilege of seeing every single day and have had the privilege of seeing every day for the last three and a half years. He is a fantastic boss. And in my view, the best boss is someone who supports you, who pushes you, and who gives you the tools and the resources you need to be effective in your job, and that is what he has done for the Drug Enforcement Administration every single day that I have been here. So, thank you so much.
(15:52)
We are gathered here today because every single one of us has been impacted by fentanyl in our communities. This issue is not distant, it's personal. It's in our homes, it's in our neighborhoods, it's in our communities. And yet today, we also have reason to feel hopeful about the work that we are doing, about our progress and about the lives that we are saving. The most important thing that I want you to walk away from today with is knowing this. You are making a difference. You are making a difference every single day through the work that you are doing, through the conversations that you are having, through the schools you are visiting, it matters, and you are making a difference. You are saving lives. Thank you for your work and thank you for this partnership.
(16:50)
Today, I want to talk a little bit about how DEA can do more, how we can learn from you and how we can expand on our partnership together and how we can save more lives in our country. I want to be clear, as I have said every year for the last three years, that this is a fight to save lives. It is a fight to save lives. And this fight is winnable. I'm going to say that again because I know that all of you have days that are hard where it is tough to get out of bed and to go to that school or to talk to that community group. I want you to know that this fight is winnable.
(17:36)
And I feel hopeful today because I know we're making a difference. The CDC has reported that between June of 2023 and June of 2024, that we have seen more than a 14% drop in the number of Americans that are dying from fentanyl and methamphetamine poisonings and overdoses. To put that in language that all of us understand and
Anne Milgram (18:00):
… and care about. That means that there are 14,063 fewer deaths in the United States of America. 14,063. And a decline like this is not just a statistic, it is not just a number. It's lives that have been saved. It is parents that do not have to bury their children. It is brothers, and sisters, and friends, that do not have to mourn. It is communities that did not have to experience another tragedy. And it is someone, or maybe it is 14,063 someones, who were given a second chance. So you are making a difference. And I think that, that's something we all need to hold onto today, as a reminder of what we're doing here, why we do the work we do together, and that everything we are doing matters.
(18:57)
But that's not all. I also want to share with you some other progress that I believe that we're making, and about how far we've come. Just over a year ago, as DEA seizes fake pills that look like real medicines across the United States. As we seize those pills, we test them. We have 10 labs across the United States with chemists who do an extraordinary job, and we test every single one pill that we possibly can to understand what's in it, how was it made, and how we can better understand how the cartels are operating. We also test it to understand how much fentanyl is in that pill. A year ago when our chemists were testing those pills, for every 10 pills they tested, seven out of those 10 was deadly. It contained two milligrams or more of fentanyl. That is a deadly dose. As all of you know, that is the amount of fentanyl that fits on the tip of a pencil, and that amount is the difference between life and death.
(20:02)
Too many of you know that that tiny amount can take a life in an instant. And here's the important news, because of the hard work and dedication of the women and men of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and because of all of you, the pills that we are seizing this year, of those 10, it is now five that contain a deadly dose. So we have gone from seven out of 10 being lethal, to five out of 10 being lethal. Now, we should all be clear that five out of 10 pills being lethal is awful, and we should not accept that. But it is significant progress in our fight to save lives, because it means that for every 10 pills on the street, too fewer are deadly today.
(20:56)
And I want to note that I believe that a big part of why we are seeing this decline, is because of the pressure that we are putting on the two cartels in Mexico, the Sinaloa and the Jalisco cartel. And as the Attorney General just said, we are putting pressure on their entire criminal networks, starting with the supply chain of chemicals in China, going to Mexico where we are targeting the manufacturers, the labs, the people transporting those chemicals and making fentanyl, pressing the fentanyl into pills, bringing it into the United States where we are targeting the drug traffickers, the people selling drugs on the streets and on social media. And then we are also targeting the illicit finance, the people who are getting the dirty money back to Mexico. That pressure is changing the way the cartels operate. It is changing the way the cartels operate, and it is making a difference.
(21:52)
As all of you know, over the last three years, we've taken action across every part of those two criminal networks, every part, for the first time in DEA's history. As the AG noted, we charged 20 Chinese chemical companies and 28 Chinese nationals with fentanyl trafficking, for the very first time. When I started at DEA, a little more than three years ago, there were seven leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel that were at liberty in Mexico. They were free. They were living their lives in Mexico without fear of being held accountable for what they were doing. Today, four of those seven leaders are in custody, and three are about to go to trial, and face justice in the United States of America.
(22:39)
And as I've said to many of the folks in this room, targeting the whole network, works. It works for us to get the leaders, it works for us to stop the supply of chemicals, and it works for us to get the people who are selling drugs on the streets of America. Over the last three years, we have also put resources, and invested heavily in something we call OD Justice. We now have OD Justice operations across the United States, in every single one of our field divisions.
(23:16)
And what that means, is we partner with local and state law enforcement, to investigate drug poisoning and overdose deaths. Since 2023, we have done almost 500 of those investigations. We have brought more cases in federal court than ever before, in the last year. And we have partnered with so many of you in this room to do that work. And I want to express my deep gratitude, because I know that when you walk in that room, whether it's a family summit, or whether you bring a DEA agent to a community meeting, or a school, you are helping us to build trust in communities that let people feel comfortable to walk in the room, and to help us do the work that can bring justice.
(24:01)
And it is so important to me to say to you altogether what I've said to many of you privately. I know that your individual quests to bring justice for your loved one's loss, it is critical for your loved one. It is also making a difference in our communities. You are stopping the next pill from being sold to the next person who may lose a life. So you are doing an incredible public service by being advocates, by working to have these cases brought and DEA, as Frank Tarantino said so beautifully yesterday, we are here to listen and to help wherever we can.
(24:41)
Now, I want to talk just for a minute about the One Pill Can Kill campaign, and public awareness. Because I do believe, as I said last night, that there are three reasons we are seeing a significant drop in American deaths. The first is you. It's your advocacy. It is the DEA's One Pill Can Kill campaign, that we make available to any person, anywhere in the United States that wants to use it. It is the work that you are doing in schools. It is the commitment to make sure that every American knows that fentanyl kills. And it is being hidden intentionally, in other drugs and in fake pills that look like real medicines. The work you do, day-in and day-out, is saving lives.
(25:28)
The second piece of why I think we're seeing a reduction in drug deaths is the enforcement work, that's happening throughout the entire criminal network. And the last of course is our public health work, and our public health partners, who are expanding naloxone and medication for substance use and opioid use disorder, across the United States. We still know that far too many people do not understand the dangers of fentanyl, and that is why we want to partner even more with you than we have before, to expand and spread the word. The conversations you are having are powerful, and they're conversations that are being repeated over and over across the United States, and we are starting to see a cultural shift. We are just starting to see a cultural shift.
(26:18)
So many of you have told me that today, when you walk in a room, you used to say, "Who in the room has heard of fentanyl?" And maybe one or two hands would go up. I personally was in a room with high school students recently, where I asked that question. Every single hand went up. That was the first time it had ever happened to me. And it's because of you. It is because of the work you were doing in your communities. And we cannot stop doing that work. It is saving lives. And we need to move beyond the stigma, into a world where we are open to talking about the harm that we are experiencing, and that we are seeing in our communities. And we need to keep building on this awareness.
Anne Milgram (27:00):
…. Awareness. So together we are making progress. What does it mean? Here's what it means to me, standing here, having had the privilege to lead the DEA for more than three years. It means that we do more. It means that we double down. It means that we go harder and we think bigger about how we stop any American dying from fentanyl. It's how we recommit today to the promise that every American understands that fentanyl kills. It is how we recommit today from our chief of operations to our special agents in charge to taking out the entire criminal network, to stopping even a single chemical from coming out of China and going to Mexico. It is how we recommit today to saying that naloxone should be available across the United States of America, in schools, in libraries, in any public space, at sports stadiums, anywhere you can think of, naloxone should be there. It's how we recommit today to this partnership together that is working, that we can expand and we can make even more of a difference in the lives of Americans.
(28:14)
Because the reality is that even one life lost is too many and we have more to do. So today I'm also announcing, as Sean Ferns teased last night, something that came out of our family summit last year. One of the things that many of you said to me was, "Why do we do this just one day of the year?" And we do our regional summits now. Every year, we are in every part of the United States, each of our field division is holding regional summits. And I can tell you that when I travel across the United States, our special agents, our intel analysts, our diversion investigators, tell me how much they value those days with you. They value them.
(28:55)
But the question many of you asked is, "How can we do more every single day?" And so we want to answer that question by launching a network that will connect us all each and every single day. We've named it the Together for Families Network. It is already up on our website, www.dea.gov/togetherforfamilies. And we want you to become a part of this network. And here's what it means. What it means is we need to find a way every single day for any family in the United States to be able to connect with their local DEA office if they need help or they want to have their case investigated. It means we need to build a bridge for resources for families, whether it's for substance use disorder or treatment or it's to understand how to get help for a loved one.
(29:48)
We want that bridge to exist and we want every single person in this room to become a part of this network because I see real time you helping one another. We want to be able to connect families. When people reach out to us for speaking engagements, we want to be able to connect with each and every single one of you and people across the United States. Sean Ferns can answer more questions about it later, but if we haven't gotten it exactly the way you want us to do it, tell us and we'll make it better. We'll make it better.
(30:17)
Looking to the future, I want us today to keep in mind all of the lives lost and the lives saved, the progress made, and the goals we have yet to reach. Together as we gather here, we're not just talking about programs or networks or numbers. We are talking about lives. We are talking about your loved ones, we're talking about family members, and we are talking about the goal of an America with no lives lost from fentanyl poisoning and overdose.
(30:48)
Each of you is an important part of our mission and of our team at DEA and a part of our work together to stop the harm. Each of you inspires me. And I want to just say on a personal note, thank you for everything you do. You give me hope, you give me inspiration. And to the men and women of DEA who are in the room, I tell them this behind closed doors all the time but I will say it publicly, I love you. There is no better group of men and women in the United States of America. There is not, who cares more, who works harder, who takes the mission to heart and achieves that mission every single day. So it has been a privilege to be with them for the last three plus years. Now, today, let's get to work. Let's go harder, let's go farther, let's dream bigger and let's get some work done. Thank you.
Sean (31:39):
Thank you, Administrator Milgram. This concludes the live stream portion. The Attorney General has an incredibly busy day, but we are grateful for his time this morning. Administrator Milgram will escort him out and we'll also ask the media to step out as we prepare for the rest of our agenda today. Please ask you to stay in your seats and we'll begin back here very shortly. Thank you very much.