By Janet Dosseva, MPH, PS-C
A few years ago, our coalition was doing outreach and educating folks to keep their prescription medications up and away to reduce the risk of medications, particularly opioids, from being diverted into the community. However, nowadays, raising awareness to prevent opioid misuse has shifted. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) warns of the increased availability of fake pills in communities all over the nation.
Law enforcement has been working to seize these fake pills and take them off the markets. Oftentimes, these are produced to look like legitimate pills like OxyContin® or Xanax®. However, they actually contain fentanyl. DEA Laboratory testing recently revealed that every 6 out of 10 of these fake pills contain lethal amounts of fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid largely driving the uptick in overdose fatalities.
Read more on page 35 of Journey Magazine.
