Dangerous Fake Pills Rampant In Georgia, GBI Says

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia law enforcement officials are warning the public about a wave of pills that appear to be one drug but contain other, sometimes dangerous, ingredients.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has issued a public safety warning regarding the counterfeit pills. Since 2015, the state crime lab has received 454 instances of counterfeit pills, the agency said in a news release.

In many cases, the GBI said, the fake pills masquerade as prescription pain medications and other legal drugs that are frequently illegally abused.

By a significant margin, Xanax (alprazolam) and oxycodone have been the two most commonly counterfeited logos discovered, according to the agency. The most common substances actually found within the fake pills have been depressants and opiates.

For example, the crime lab, in Decatur, received a pill with markings consistent with oxycodone — a powerful opioid pain medication. The pill was actually determined to contain fentanyl, furanyl fentanyl and U-47700.

In the last four months, at least 17 deaths in Georgia have been caused by furanyl fentanyl and U-47700 (often referred to simply as U-4 or "pink.") That's the same number of deaths the two synthetic opioids were attached to in all of last year.

The deaths led the GBI to issue a statewide warning about the dangers of the drugs.

The discovery of the counterfeit oxycodone pill led the GBI crime lab to conduct an internal study to determine the contents of pills submitted to the lab by law enforcement.

According to the study, metro Atlanta has the most instances of counterfeit drugs in the state.

Of particular concern were transdermal drugs in the opiate drug class that were disguised as oxycodone, a non-transdermal drug. Those include fentanyl and the like.

Those drugs, which come in liquid or powder forms, are so strong that, usually, users use them in small quantities to lace other opiates, authorities say. According to the federal Drug Enforcement two milligrams of fentanyl is a deadly dose for most people.

Both fentanyl and U-4 were found in the drug cocktail believed to have killed legendary musician Prince. The drugs can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

In 2017 so far, the GBI crime lab has discovered eight fentanyl, six furanyl fentanyl, and 15 U-47700 (pink) pills that were embossed as non-transdermal drugs.

Should someone come in contact with the drugs and an overdose is suspected, the anti-opioid drug Naloxone should be administered, if available, and 911 should be called immediately, according to the GBI.

Photo via Pixabay. Graphics courtesy Georgia Bureau of Investigation