Drastic Increase Of Deadly Pills Sparks Public Safety Alert: DEA

BOSTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a Public Safety Alert for the first time in six years due to a dramatic increase in fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine.

The DEA wants to make the public aware of a significant nationwide surge in counterfeit pills. They say these counterfeit pills are being mass-produced by criminal drug networks in labs, the marketed as legitimate pills, thus killing unsuspecting Americans at what they are calling an 'alarming and unprecedented' rate.

The DEA says they have confiscated these counterfeit pills in every U.S. state.

More than 9.5 million counterfeit pills have been seized so far this year, which the DEA says is more than the last two years combined.

Testing of the pills by the DEA reveals a huge rise in the number of pills containing a lethal dose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. The DEA says a deadly dose of fentanyl is small enough to fit the tip of a pencil.

DEA lab analyses reveal that two out of every five fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, which is at least two milligrams.

These pills are being illegally designed by criminal drug networks in and out of the United States to look like real prescription opioid medications.

Counterfeit pills have been modeled after oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax); or stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall).

The DEA says fake prescription pills are easily accessible and can be sold on social media and e-commerce platforms, making them available to anyone with a smartphone, including children.

"The United States is facing an unprecedented crisis of overdose deaths fueled by illegally manufactured fentanyl and methamphetamine," said Anne Milgram, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "Counterfeit pills that contain these dangerous and extremely addictive drugs are more lethal and more accessible than ever before."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose across the country last year. They say fentanyl is the primary driver of the alarming increase in overdose deaths.

The DEA says the drug overdose crisis has rates currently reaching the highest level in history, thus creating a serious public safety threat.

On Monday, the Methadone Mile, a strip of a few streets near the McDonald's on Massachusetts Ave, was cited as a type of situation that supervised injection sites could help avoid, the State House News Service reported.

"There are unsafe consumption sites all over the commonwealth, all over the state and the nation where people are openly using drugs with no medical assistance, no resources, nothing to prevent overdoses or help people get off drugs," Matthew McLaughlin, city council president in Somerville, which is making a push to be the first community in Massachusetts to establish such a site, said.

Drug traffickers are using fake pills to exploit the opioid crisis and prescription drug misuse in the United States, bringing overdose deaths and violence to communities across the country. This year alone, DEA seized more than 2700 firearms in connection with drug trafficking investigations – a 30 percent increase since 2019.

"Today, we are alerting the public to this danger so that people have the information they need to protect themselves and their children," said Milgram in a statement Monday.

This alert does not apply to legitimate pharmaceutical medications prescribed by medical professionals and dispensed by licensed pharmacists. The legitimate prescription supply chain is not impacted. Anyone filling a prescription at a licensed pharmacy can be confident that the medications they receive are safe when taken as directed by a medical professional.

The DEA says they are urging all Americans to be vigilant and aware of the dangers of counterfeit pills, and to take only medications prescribed by a medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist.

For more information on this public safety alert, click here.