Law enforcement officers seized more than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl last year, compared to over 71 million in 2022, according to a new study.
The study was published Monday in the International Journal of Drug Policy and detailed in a report by NPR. It revealed that the number of pills seized in 2023 was 2,300 times greater than the 50,000 seized in 2017.
NPR noted the counterfeit pills are made to look like legitimate prescription opioid medications, like oxycodone or benzodiazepines.
"The number and size of fentanyl seizures is increasing in the US, with the majority of seizures, especially in pill form, in the West," the report said. "Continued monitoring of regional shifts in the fentanyl supply can help inform targeted prevention and public health response."
And the report noted: "The United States continues to experience an unprecedented overdose crisis. From 1999 through 2020, over 900,000 persons died from a drug overdose, the majority of deaths involving an opioid. In 2022 alone, 107,941 drug overdose deaths occurred, exceeding 100,000 per year for the second year in a row, with 73,838 linked to synthetic opioid use in 2022."
Dr. Samuel Beckerman, an emergency medicine physician in Los Angeles, said: "It's like Russian roulette. One pill might be enough to make you stop breathing. Another pill might just be enough to get you high."
DW.com said Joseph Palamar of NYU Langone Health, who led the study, noted: "Fentanyl in pill form is now beginning to dominate the drug supply [in the U.S.]. Pills are easy to ship and disguise and can also be marketed easily, as Americans have a reputation of loving their pills."
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid about 50 times stronger than heroin, according to DW. Doses as small as two milligrams can be lethal.
At least 200 deaths every day can be attributed to fentanyl. Since 2018 more than a quarter of a million Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses, according to DW.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.