Study finds spike in fake fentanyl pills seized by US policeExBulletin

This image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shows suspected fentanyl pills seized at Los Angeles International Airport in 2022.

AP

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AP

This image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shows suspected fentanyl pills seized at Los Angeles International Airport in 2022.

AP

A new study shows the number of counterfeit fentanyl pills seized by law enforcement has skyrocketed dramatically, showing that an increase in the illicit drug supply is driving the country's historic opioid crisis. is showing.

More than 115 million illegal fentanyl-containing pills were seized by law enforcement last year, and more than 71 million in 2022, according to a study released Monday. International Drug Policy Journal. According to the study, the number of pills seized last year was 2,300 times the approximately 50,000 pills seized in 2017.

Counterfeit pills are made to look like legitimate prescription opioid drugs, such as oxycodone or benzodiazepines, but are often much more dangerous.

Public health officials have been warning about the presence of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, in the illicit drug supply for more than a decade. A new report highlights the growing threat of cheap and powerful counterfeit pills, especially in the western United States.

“The availability of illicit fentanyl continues to skyrocket in the United States, and the influx of fentanyl-containing pills is particularly concerning,” said Joseph Palamar, associate professor in the Department of Population Health at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine. . Lead author of the study. “Public health efforts are needed to keep these pills out of the hands of young people and prevent overdoses among people who are taking pills that undoubtedly contain fentanyl.”

The study was led by researchers participating in the National Drug Early Warning System, a federal program that monitors drug seizures across the country. 33 so-called drug trafficking areas All over the country. The data was collected by a combination of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. This does not include seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

4 out of 10 drug overdose deaths involve fentanyl

Factors driving the spread include the fact that counterfeit pills are cheap to make and buy, and social media and the dark web have made it easier to buy them online. Fentanyl produces a very strong but short-lived high, so people take more of it than other opioids.

It also has a faster-acting effect and is many times more potent than heroin or morphine, making it highly addictive and easy to overdose. In counterfeit prescription drug forms, they can be mistaken for safer drugs. In reality, we don't know how much fentanyl is in it.

“It's like Russian roulette,” said Dr. Samuel Beckerman, an emergency physician in Los Angeles. “One pill might be enough to stop you breathing. Another pill might be enough to get you high.”

In 2021, illicit fentanyl was the only drug involved in 41% of drug overdose deaths where there was evidence of counterfeit pill use. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Counterfeit pills are accounting for an increasing proportion of all fentanyl seizures, a study found. Fentanyl attacks more than quadrupled between 2017 and 2023. Almost half of fentanyl attacks last year were in the form of fake pills, compared to just 10% of fentanyl attacks at the beginning of the same period.

Most of the fentanyl pill seizures were in western U.S. states.

Members of the Portland Fire Rescue Community Health Assessment and Treatment Team load a patient into an ambulance for treatment after receiving naloxone nasal spray for a suspected fentanyl drug overdose in Portland, Oregon, January 25. .

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Members of the Portland Fire Rescue Community Health Assessment and Treatment Team load a patient into an ambulance for treatment after receiving naloxone nasal spray for a suspected fentanyl drug overdose in Portland, Oregon, January 25. .

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The study highlights how the opioid epidemic, which has historically been worse in eastern states, is more entrenched in the west.

The most fentanyl seizures (in powder and pill form) in 2023 occurred in Florida, while the second and third largest seizures occurred in Arizona and California, respectively.

Looking specifically at the number of seizures of illegal fentanyl pills, researchers once again found that western states had the highest number of seizures. Pills accounted for nearly 78 percent of all fentanyl seizures in the region last year.

California had the highest number of pill seizures, followed by Arizona and Colorado.

“Most of the fentanyl that we're seeing, at least on the West Coast, comes from Mexico. A lot of the precursors are shipped there from China and manufactured in Mexico,” said Caleb Banta-Green. He is a research professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who studies drug use epidemiology but was not involved in the study.

Banta Green, director of the University of California's Regional Center for Drug Education, Epidemiology, and Research, said research suggests that the increase in fentanyl supply in the West is what he sees happening in Washington state. He said that it probably reflects what has happened.

In the past two years alone, fentanyl has overtaken heroin as the most used opioid in the state, according to one report. community survey Conducted by the Center.

The prevalence of fake prescription drugs containing fentanyl means that many people who would not normally use opiates, or who had no intention of using them, end up becoming addicted to opiates.

In Los Angeles, Dr. Beckerman, who works at Huntington Hospital and L.A. General Medical Center, said he often sees patients who overdose on fentanyl, thinking it's Adderall or MDMA they got from a friend and don't realize they've taken it. Told.

“But that friend got it from someone else and it didn't come from a pharmacy,” he said. “There is a 60 to 70 percent chance that the pill contains a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.”

The number of fentanyl overdose deaths in the region jumped from 109 in 2016 to 1,910 in 2022. According to the LA County Health Department.

“The phrase I like to use is these are not just accidental overdoses, these are fentanyl and opiate addictions,” Beckerman said. “These are people who have never taken an opiate in their life. They're not taking an opiate because they want to take fentanyl.”

To fight opioid crisis, Americans need more access to opioids, experts say Drugs considered the gold standard For the treatment of opioid use disorder, such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. Stigma against addiction often limits access to these life-saving drugs.

“Until effective treatments and harm reduction are more readily available than fentanyl, people will continue to use fentanyl,” Vantagreen said. “We're doing that, but we need to scale it up massively in the United States.”