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Officials with the Drug Enforcement Agency announced on Thursday that rainbow-colored fentanyl pills had been seized in the Washington D.C. area.
The field intelligence manager for the Washington region’s DEA, Jennifer Lofland, said these pills have been taken by law enforcement in the DC area for the last 18 months and may be signs of an effort by drug dealers to target younger people.
“My biggest concern and I think the biggest concern of DEA nationwide, is that the pills seem to be marketed specifically to a younger age group,” Lofland said, according to Fox5 DC.
Lofland urged parents to educate their children as they prepare to go back to school about the dangers of taking pills unless prescribed by a doctor. Illegal pills may be laced with unknown substances that can cause death or serious injury.
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Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
(Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA))
“Some of the multi-colored pills that we’ve been testing in our labs recently, particularly a recent batch that appeared to be children’s chewable vitamins, were tested by our lab as containing both fentanyl and methamphetamine,” Lofland added. “And so that is just an added layer of danger.”
Animal tranquilizers are one of the substances that the DEA is finding with these pills.
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In Arizona on Thursday, Customs and Border Protection agents also seized 15,000 “candy”-looking fentanyl pills attached to an individual’s legs. The items were taken by law enforcement at the Nogales Port Entry for the second consecutive day. The day before, 250,000 fentanyl pills were found, with some having a “candy”-like appearance.
“This could be the start of a trend with transnational criminal organizations targeting younger users,” Humphries said.
