America is facing a drug overdose crisis of epic proportions. The scope of it is staggering: In 2016, opioid overdoses took more lives than guns, and the number of drug overdose deaths in 2017 exceeded the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Vietnam War. In Hawaii, we have thus far been spared the worst of the opioid epidemic, but as the chief federal law enforcement official in Hawaii, I am convinced that we must do more to build our communities’ capacity for resistance.

Alarmingly, the same opioids that kill thousands on the mainland have found their way to our shores. On several occasions this year, law enforcement officers in Hawaii have seized fentanyl, an opioid that is roughly 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. When used without the careful oversight of a physician, fentanyl is a deadly poison. Just two milligrams — the size of a few grains of salt — is enough to kill.

And fentanyl analogues, which typically follow close behind the arrival of illicit fentanyl, are even more dangerous. Carfentanyl, for example, is 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, 5,000 times more powerful than heroin, and 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.

On the mainland, carfentanyl mixed with other substances is responsible for localized outbreaks of dozens of drug overdose deaths. Troublingly, DEA drug labs around the country are detecting fentanyl and fentanyl analogues mixed with cocaine, methamphetamine, and even marijuana.

The presence of illicit fentanyl in Hawaii is alarming because many here struggle with drug addiction. Between 2012 and 2017, first responders administered naloxone — a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — in Honolulu County an average of approximately 1,300 times per year.

A 2017 report by the Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center paints an equally concerning picture: In 2017, participants in a program providing drug users with access to clean syringes exchanged 487,041 syringes on Oahu, and 1,068,621 syringes statewide. This data suggests a significant amount of illicit drug use in Hawaii, and resultantly, a sizable population of people at risk of exposure to fentanyl and its analogues.

Dangerous and addictive drugs have many routes into Hawaii and the homes of our loved ones. During the late 1990s and the first decade of this century, the addictive properties of prescription painkillers like oxycontin were not widely recognized, and aggressive pain management practices led many Americans to misuse or develop addictions to prescription opioids. Today, some medical professionals (thankfully, only a tiny fraction of the noble profession as a whole) unlawfully divert opioid painkillers by prescribing them without a legitimate medical purpose.

Drug-trafficking organizations in Mexico sell illegal drugs to traffickers on the West Coast, who supply them to the local dealers who sell them on our streets. The internet is another source of supply, as drug dealers now use the dark web to anonymously market and sell drugs online, and then ship them to Hawaii.

For all these reasons, Hawaii is just as vulnerable as mainland communities to the drug overdose epidemic. So what can be done? For our part, law enforcement is actively targeting for investigation and prosecution anyone responsible, directly or indirectly, for the unlawful distribution of controlled substances — whether they are health-care professionals illegally prescribing drugs like fentanyl, or drug dealers selling methamphetamine on a side street. My message is simple: We will hold you accountable for these crimes, period.

But law enforcement alone will not solve the drug problem in Hawaii. We are just one component of what must be a comprehensive and cooperative approach to combatting drug addiction and abuse. Equally essential are the efforts of the medical professionals, treatment providers and community organizations who provide education, outreach and treatment services aimed at preventing illicit drug use and helping those who struggle with addiction find their way to recovery.

Ultimately, this is a space where everyone has a role: Parents must speak with their children, teachers with their students, and doctors with their patients about the terrible health consequences of drug abuse. Now is the time to use every resource at our disposal to protect Hawaii’s most precious resource: the men, women and children who inhabit our beautiful islands.

Kenji Price is the U.S. attorney for the District of Hawaii.