The pills tested positive for fentanyl, a drug that can be up to 100 times as powerful as morphine. Just like the pills found at Prince’s home, the fentanyl-filled pills that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been finding look just like run-of-the-mill prescription pills. “The counterfeit pills often closely resemble the authentic medications they were designed to mimic, and the presence of fentanyl is only detected upon laboratory analysis,” a DEA report warned last month. Using pill presses (which are easily purchased online), they can turn that one kilogram of fentanyl into more than 600,000 pills. Now, the ability to pump fentanyl into pills – which are far more attractive to more casual drug users – has led to a crisis far more dangerous.

Source: National Post August 22, 2016 15:33 UTC