evidence: We are in the midst of the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. The drug is fentanyl, and unlike cocaine and heroin, it's a purely chemical, man-made drug. It's cheap to produce, easily smuggled, and packs an incredibly addictive punch – 50 times more powerful than heroin. Nearly all the fentanyl flooding into the U.S. is made in Mexico by two powerful drug cartels, with chemicals primarily purchased from China. And as you're about to hear, it is frequently hidden in counterfeit pills made to look just like prescription drugs. It's the scourge of our time. Last year more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl; that's a higher death toll than U.S. military casualties in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. [...] Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid – a chemical cousin to morphine – originally designed for hospital patients in extreme pain. Now it is in cities and towns in all 50 states. Frequent users heat up fentanyl powder and inhale it. But more often it's sold in pill form – deliberately made to look like real prescription drugs – the one on the left contains fentanyl. Just two milligrams, an amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, can kill. [...] Three years ago, Anne Milgram – a former attorney general of New Jersey – took over the Drug Enforcement Administration. Since then fentanyl has claimed more than 200,000 American lives, although deaths appear to be leveling off.