Police warn about fake prescription drugs

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland police are warning Oregonians about fake pills illegally sold in their city and across the state.

According to the Portland Police Bureau, the counterfeit prescription drugs are being illegally marketed and sold on the streets and online. The potentially dangerous pills are being peddled as Xanax, Oxycodone, Alprazolam and others.

Results from the Oregon Crime Lab show drugs seized by police often contain extremely potent substances that have already caused overdose deaths. In one case, officers investigated a counterfeit oxycodone tablet that contained heroin and fentanyl, an extremely potent opioid analogue.

Police said fentanyl is similar to morphine, but it can be 100 to 10,000 times more potent and crosses the blood-barrier faster.

Police wrote, “In Oregon, 80 people have died in accidental overdoses from synthetic opioids since 2014, but the deaths are increasing according to the State Medical Examiner.”

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