Health officials are warning residents that tainted and potentially deadly counterfeit pills are currently circulating in Boulder County. The counterfeit pills — including brand name pills made to look like Oxycodoen or M/30, Xanax and others — are made with ingredients that may contain fentanyl or other dangerous additives, according to a Boulder County news release.
The additives may cause serious medical complications or can lead to death, the news release states.
The illegally manufactured counterfeit drugs have been recently seized in Boulder County.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is about 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, the news release said. Of counterfeit pills tested in Drug Enforcement Administration laboratories, one in four pills made with fentanyl contained a potentially lethal dose. A kilogram of fentanyl can contain 500,000 potentially lethal doses, the news release said.
Boulder County Public Health has the following prevention recommendations to avoid a dangerous interaction with an additive:
- Carry Narcan. Narcan can revive and save lives, but always call 911 if there is a suspicion someone has overdosed. Colorado has the Good Samaritan law, which means someone will not be charged with a crime if you call 911. A person can be charged if they leave the scene.
- Never use drugs alone. A person can’t be saved if they are alone.
- Unless you picked up your own prescription at the pharmacy, don’t trust the strength.
- Start small with a low dose. You can always add more but you can’t subtract.
- Test drugs using fentanyl strips. If it doesn’t contain fentanyl it doesn’t mean it’s not there, it can still be in another untested part of the pill or another unknown synthetic.
For more information, visit: Overdose Prevention & Response- Boulder County. For more information on how to dispose of drugs, visit: https://boco.org/TheWorksProgram.
