As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, and the potent opioid is highly trafficked nationwide. Now drug cartels are distributing it in rainbow-colored pills intended to appeal to children and teenagers.
More people died last year from opioids than any year ever on record.
We’ve had nine children, nine students who have ODed. One very sadly died as a result of contact with fentanyl. The reality is this can happen to anyone, a US Officer said.
US Federal authorities want you to be aware of so-called rainbow fentanyl pills. The DEA warns the drug targets children because it looks like candy.
What we’re seeing with rainbow fentanyl, we’ve now, DEA or our law enforcement partners, we’ve now seized it in 21 states.
And what’s distressing and should be a concern not only here in Los Angeles, across the state, and across the country, is that adult criminal enterprises are finding novel ways of appealing to young people.
They don’t tell the kids, it’s candy. But they say, oh, this will give you a great high. And it looks innocent. So the kids are far more likely to take it.
Unfortunately, fentanyl is so potent and so powerful that many people overdose and lose their lives unintentionally.
“In June of 2020, I lost my 14-year-old son, Alexander, to a single pill that he believed was oxycodone. And, unfortunately, that single pill took his life. And we were very confused, obviously, like how could one pill kill him? But we quickly learned about illicit fentanyl and its effects of it”, said Amy Neville from the USA.
What we’ve seen over the past 10 years or so is a huge increase in the availability of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl that’s made in underground laboratories and sold either combined with heroin or sold in place of heroin, or in some cases manufactured into counterfeit pills.
The pill that killed Alex had enough fentanyl in it to kill four people.
Source: OEM
