Officials seized more than 115 million pills containing fentanyl in 2023. The opiate is often mixed with street drugs and linked to overdoses.
Counterfeit fentanyl pills are being seized by law enforcement in the United States at an unprecedented rate. A study published May 13, 2024, in the International Journal of Drug Policy indicated that more than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl were seized by US law enforcement in 2023.
The researchers behind the study said the number had grown from 71 million pills in 2022 and 50,000 pills in 2017.
The counterfeit fentanyl pills are made to look like legal prescription opioid medication — such as oxycodone and tramadol — but are often far deadlier than the originals.
“Fentanyl in pill form is now beginning to dominate the drug supply [in the US]. Pills are easy to ship and disguise and can also be marketed easily, as Americans have a reputation of loving their pills,” said the study’s lead author Joseph Palamar of NYU Langone Health in the US.
That was my point. They’re locking people up in order to create a criminal underclass that can be exploited and used to scare the rest of the population. High recidivism rates are part of the design.
I follow. My prior comment was intended to compare efficacy of incarceration vs. rehabilitation in mitigating illicit drug use and addiction in the nation.
I agree that this would be a better way to go about things. But the US “justice” system isn’t interested in mitigation.