A growing number of Americans are dying of overdoses on counterfeit pills, health officials warn.
The proportion of fatal overdoses involving fake tablets more than doubled between 2019 and 2021, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).
The pills are made to look like legitimate tablets, such as Xanax and Oxycodone, and often contain fentanyl.
The proportion of drug overdose deaths involving counterfeit pills has risen between 2019 and 2021, with a particularly dramatic rise in Western states such as Alaska
The fentanyl seized by the DEA Task Force in October 2022: 300,000 rainbow pills and 22 pounds in powder form
The number of deaths from fentanyl in the US has skyrocketed in the 2010s. At the beginning of the decade, 2,666 Americans died of fentanyl overdose. This figure skyrocketed to 19,413 in 2016. Covid made the situation even worse, with a record 72,484 deaths in 2021
The CDC calculated the proportion of overdose deaths involving counterfeit pills in 30 jurisdictions between July 2019 and December 2021.
During that period, there were 106,293 drug overdose deaths.
The proportion of overdose deaths involving the use of counterfeit pills more than doubled from two percent in July-September 2019 to four percent in October-December 2021.
The rate has more than tripled from 4.7 percent to 14.7 percent in western jurisdictions such as Alaska, New Mexico and Utah.
If the pills found at the overdose scene were identified as fake, the tablets tested positive for drugs other than what they appeared to contain, or if the pills were not marked, they were considered counterfeit.
Most of the people taking counterfeit pills were under age 35, Hispanic or Latino, and had a history of prescription drug abuse.
The arrival of cheap fentanyl from China, Mexico and India, coupled with the rise of the dark web – an unregulated and anonymous corner of the internet – allowed the counterfeit pill market to spread.
Last May, Mac Miller’s drug supplier was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for distributing counterfeit oxycodone laced with fentanyl, which was the cause of the rapper’s fatal overdose.
Earlier this year, Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson also died after taking fake oxycodone with fentanyl.
The opioid crisis in the US has been growing for decades, but has intensified during the pandemic, as lockdowns and hospital closures left people bored and vulnerable to addiction, also preventing them from getting prescriptions.
Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 for use as a pain reliever in cancer patients, often injected or used as a patch. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), it started popping up in pills and other forms in the 2010s during the US opioid epidemic.
It is a very potent synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and up to 50 times stronger than heroin and is often the cause of accidental overdoses.
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. Earlier this year, Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson (pictured right) also died after taking fake oxycodone with fentanyl.
About 41 percent of deaths between 2019 and 2021 involving fake pills contained illegally manufactured fentanyl.
Xylazine was found alongside fentanyl in two percent of those deaths.
Xylazine, also known as “tranq,” is an inexpensive animal tranquilizer mass-produced in China that is quickly making its way into the U.S. illegal drug supply. In combination with fentanyl, an even deadlier cocktail is created.
The report states: ‘Effective messages on overdose prevention would emphasize that individuals should only take legitimate pharmaceutical pills that have been prescribed for them, and emphasize that pills obtained illegally or without a prescription may contain very potent drugs.’
It was mentioned that access to fentanyl test strips and drug monitoring services can help people become aware of the contents of pills.
President Joe Biden this week announced a plan to reduce overdose deaths from fentanyl and xylazine, but set himself the modest goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2025.
The US overdose crisis has exploded since the 2010s, when fentanyl first began to flood the illicit drug supply.
It can help drug users achieve a more intense high, but is also toxic: just two milligrams can kill an adult.
Overdose deaths have soared during the Covid pandemic, due to concerns about job preservation and rising mental health concerns.
Doctors have also sounded the alarm about a Chinese-made drug more deadly than fentanyl making its way to the US.
Nitazenes, a group of lab-made opioids such as fentanyl, are increasingly mixed with heroin and counterfeit pills sold on the street, causing fatal overdoses.
They are thought to be about 1,000 times more potent than morphine, with patients requiring at least two doses of naloxone to combat overdose, compared to the standard dose for fentanyl.
“Physicians need to be aware of these opioids in the drug supply so they are adequately prepared to care for these patients,” said doctors from Mount Sinai, New York, who issued the warning.