The DEA says there's a new scheme by cartels and street dealers to use colored fentanyl pills to hook kids. Experts say they've seen no evidence for that — and they note that children typically lack the kind of cash that makes for good repeat customers.
Brian Mann, NPR NewsIn August 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration and law enforcement partners seized brightly colored rainbow fentanyl pills in 18 states.
Dasgupta’s lab tests illegally manufactured opioid pills collected from across the United States. He says colored pills like the ones highlighted in the DEA warning are on the streets but that it’s nothing new. Dr. Sheila Vakharia, head of research for an addiction think-tank called the Drug Policy Alliance, said dealers use colors, stamps and other markers “to distinguish their product from other products on the street.”In its warning about dealers marketing fentanyl to young people, the DEA also suggested cartels are coloring blocks of the drug so that it “resembles sidewalk chalk.
They also noted that selling to really young kids — who might be drawn to pills that look like candy or sidewalk chalk — would be bad for business.Vakharia believes the real public health concern is dealers shaping and coloring pills to look like fentanyl-free opioids from a pharmacy. “Oftentimes colors are also used to mimic legitimate prescription medications,” she said.
“New drug trends, like fake pills and brightly colored fentanyl, are marketing tactics used to appeal to various customers.”Everyone contacted for this story agrees fentanyl is a danger. Overdoses hit record levels in the United States last year,Brandon del Pozo, an addiction medicine researcher at Brown University, says fears about the very real fentanyl crisis have sometimes given rise to inaccurate information and false alarms.
According to del Pozo, false alarms and drug scares matter because they distract attention from the need for better health care and addiction treatment at a moment when more than 100,000 Americans are dying from overdoses each year. MANN: The DEA also warned of fentanyl smuggled in a box of Lego toys and fentanyl dyed to look like the chalk children use to color sidewalks. These alerts didn’t mention Halloween, but in an interview on Fox, Milgram was asked whether parents should worry about candy gathered by kids trick or treating.MANN: Drug policy experts contacted by NPR agree there’s no new fentanyl threat this Halloween. But many are also skeptical of the DEA’s original warning.
MANN: Street drug experts contacted by NPR say traffickers have long used bright colors in their products for reasons that have nothing to do with children. Dr. Sheila Vakharia is with an addiction think tank called the Drug Policy Alliance.
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