DETROIT – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a public warning to inform people about fake prescription pills that might contain dangerous drugs including fentanyl and meth.
These counterfeit pills seem to be widely produced in large quantities that are deceptively distributed as legitimate prescription pills.
Photos provided by the DEA show how similar the fake pills are to the real thing.
Sadly, this case of mistaken identity has unfortunately cost some people their lives.
According to the DEA, many fatal overdoses have happened as a result of the circulating fake pills. Linda Davis, executive director of the anti-drug organization Families Against Narcotics, says the fake pills are a real shame.
“It just makes me sad that we are not doing more to protect this vulnerable population,” Davis said. “This kind of thing happens with physicians, it has happened with pharmacies, now it’s just happening with people selling pills that are laced with a deadly drug.”
Her organization has seen firsthand what these drugs can do to an unsuspecting user, especially if they have no idea what might be inside.
“This doesn’t only devastate the person using the drugs, but losing a child to addiction when it can be prevented ... it is just heartbreaking,” Davis said.
She is hopeful that something can be done on a larger scale before more people fall victim to these pills.
“I really hope that our attorney general and our local prosecutors get together and really decide that anybody caught doing this kind of activity would be prosecuted,” Davis said. “This is a deadly substance that’s being put in these pills (for) a very vulnerable population.”
So far, 93,000 people have overdosed while more than 9.5 million counterfeit pills have been seized this year alone.
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