One Pill Can Kill

Never trust your own eyes to determine if a pill is legitimate. The only safe medications are ones prescribed by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist.

Counterfeit fentanyl pills are becoming a lot more common in law enforcement seizures

The spread of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills has also meant that many people who don't normally use opiates — and never intended to — end up getting hooked on them.

Detecting Fentanyl. Saving Lives

he recent increase in overdoses can be traced to the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl and other similar substances, which are increasingly laced into heroin and other street drugs, making them even more deadly. People who use street drugs often don’t even know they’re taking fentanyl. We studied three portable technologies to see how well they detected fentanyl in street drugs. We also investigated whether people who use drugs would be interested in testing for fentanyl in order to protect themselves.

Fentanyl Lacing

Street-purchased drugs, including study drugs or THC products, can be laced with fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid. Victims are often unaware that they are consuming fentanyl.

Fentanyl mixed with cocaine or meth is driving the '4th wave' of the overdose crisis

"We're now seeing that the use of fentanyl together with stimulants is rapidly becoming the dominant force in the U.S. overdose crisis," says Joseph Friedman, the lead author of the study and a researcher at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. "Fentanyl has ushered in a polysubstance overdose crisis, meaning that people are mixing fentanyl with other drugs, like stimulants, but also countless other synthetic substances."

Health officials warn of rise in deaths from counterfeit pills

“People should assume that any pill sold on the street contains fentanyl, no matter how authentic it might look, said Regional Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines. “Taking any pill laced with fentanyl can be fatal.”

Overdose or Poisoning? A New Debate Over What to Call a Drug Death

As millions of fentanyl-tainted pills inundate the United States masquerading as common medications, grief-scarred families have been pressing for a change in the language used to describe drug deaths. They want public health leaders, prosecutors and politicians to use “poisoning” instead of “overdose.” In their view, “overdose” suggests that their loved ones were addicted and responsible for their own deaths, whereas “poisoning” shows they were victims.

Some Mexican pharmacies sell pills laced with deadly fentanyl to U.S. travelers

"For pills sold as oxycodone, we tested 27 and found 10 or 11 of them contained either fentanyl or heroin," said Chelsea Shover, a researcher at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Stimulant users caught up in fatal 'fourth wave' of opioid epidemic

The mix of stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamines with fentanyl – a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin – is driving what experts call the opioid epidemic’s “fourth wave.” The mixture presents powerful challenges to efforts to reduce overdoses, because many users of stimulants don’t know they are at risk of ingesting opioids and so don’t take overdose precautions.

The Cocaine Was Laced With Fentanyl. Now Six Are Dead From Overdoses.

The deaths over three days in Suffolk County reflect a dangerous shift in the street-drug marketplace, according to police and prosecutors.

The Rising Menace: Street Drugs Laced with Fentanyl

Fentanyl in drugs is risky because it's unpredictable. People who take a drug might not know if it has fentanyl, and that puts them at risk of overdosing. Even if someone is used to taking drugs, fentanyl is so strong that they might make a mistake in how much they take. Such a mistake could be deadly.

The Truth About Drug Dealers Lacing Cocaine with Fentanyl

In some instances, cheap street cocaine shows evidence of having been contaminated with trace amounts of fentanyl. It’s an important and dangerous reality for some users, but nothing nearly along the lines of what authorities are suggesting.