A growing number of Americans are dying from overdoses with counterfeit pills, health officials warn.
According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the proportion of fatal overdoses involving counterfeit pills more than doubled from 2019 to 2021.
The pills look like real pills like Xanax and Oxycodone and often contain fentanyl.
The proportion of drug overdose deaths linked to counterfeit pills increased between 2019 and 2021, with the increase particularly dramatic in western states like Alaska
The fentanyl seized by the DEA task force in October 2022 – 300,000 rainbow pills and 22 pounds in powder form
In the United States, the number of deaths caused by fentanyl rose sharply in the 2010s. At the start of the decade, 2,666 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. This number increased to 19,413 by 2016. Covid made the situation worse with a record 72,484 deaths in 2021
The CDC determined the proportion of overdose deaths attributed to the use of counterfeit pills in 30 jurisdictions between July 2019 and December 2021.
There were 106,293 overdose deaths from all drugs during this period.
The proportion of overdose deaths attributed to counterfeit pills more than doubled from two percent in July to September 2019 to four percent in October to December 2021.
In western jurisdictions such as Alaska, New Mexico and Utah, the percentage more than tripled from 4.7 percent to 14.7 percent.
If pills found at the overdose scene were identified as counterfeit, the pills tested positive for drugs other than those they apparently contained, or the pills were not labeled, they were considered counterfeit.
Most people who took counterfeit pills were under 35, of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and had a history of prescription drug abuse.
The pills are not made by pharmaceutical companies but are designed to look like real pills.
Drug enforcement efforts had begun to curb America’s opioid epidemic by cracking down on the so-called “pill mills” that distributed prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet, which sparked the crisis in the early 2000s.
The “pill mill law,” passed in 2011, banned pain clinics from dispensing medications and required medical exams before and after prescribing opioids for chronic pain.
The opioid crisis in the U.S. has been growing for decades but worsened during the pandemic as lockdowns and hospital closures left people bored and vulnerable to addiction, while also preventing them from getting prescriptions.
Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 as a painkiller for cancer patients, often injected or as a patch. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), it increasingly appeared in pills and other forms of the opioid epidemic in the United States in the 2010s.
It is a highly potent synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and up to 50 times stronger than heroin and is often responsible for accidental overdoses.
The arrival of cheap fentanyl from China, Mexico and India, as well as the emergence of the Dark Web – an unregulated and anonymous corner of the Internet – enabled the market for counterfeit pills to expand.
Last May, Mac Miller’s drug supplier was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for distributing counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl that caused the rapper’s fatal overdose.
Earlier this year, Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson also died after taking fake oxycodone laced with fentanyl.
Last May, Mac Miller’s drug supplier was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for distributing counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl that caused the rapper’s fatal overdose. Miller is pictured, left, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in March 2018. Also earlier this year, Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson (pictured right) died after taking fake oxycodone containing fentanyl
About 41 percent of deaths between 2019 and 2021 related to counterfeit pills contained illegally manufactured fentanyl.
In two percent of these deaths, xylazine was detected together with fentanyl.
Xylazine, also known as “Tranq,” is a cheap animal tranquilizer that is mass-produced in China and is quickly finding its way into the U.S. illegal drug supply. When combined with fentanyl, it creates an even deadlier cocktail.
The report states: “Effective overdose prevention messages would emphasize that people should only use legal drug pills that have been prescribed to them and emphasize that pills purchased illegally or without a prescription may contain highly potent medications.”
It mentioned that access to fentanyl test strips and drug screening services can help people be aware of the pills’ contents.
President Joe Biden this week announced a plan to reduce overdose deaths caused by fentanyl and xylazine, but set a modest goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2025.
The overdose crisis in America has been growing rapidly since the 2010s, when fentanyl began to sweep the illicit drug supply.
It can give drug users a more intense high, but it is also toxic: just two milligrams can kill an adult.
The number of overdose deaths rose sharply in the wake of the Covid pandemic due to concerns about job retention and increasing mental health problems.
Doctors have also sounded the alarm over a Chinese-made drug deadlier than fentanyl making its way to the US.
Nitazenes, a group of lab-made opioids like fentanyl, are increasingly being mixed into heroin and counterfeit prescription pills sold on the streets, leading to fatal overdoses.
They are thought to be about 1,000 times more powerful than morphine, with patients requiring at least two doses of naloxone to stave off an overdose, compared to the standard dose of fentanyl.
“Physicians should be aware of these opioids in the drug supply so that they are adequately prepared to care for these patients,” said doctors at Mount Sinai, New York, who issued the alert.