The Drug Enforcement Administration issued an advisory Tuesday about an "rising development" of "brightly-colored" fentanyl drugs getting used to lure youngsters and younger folks. What is commonly known as "rainbow fentanyl" has been seized by regulation enforcement businesses in 18 states simply this month, the DEA mentioned.
The medicine, made to seem like sweet, is available in a number of varieties, together with "drugs, powder and blocks that resembles sidewalk chalk," the DEA mentioned.
"Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl drugs and powder that are available in a wide range of vivid colours, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive dependancy amongst youngsters and younger adults," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram mentioned in a press release.
Fentanyl, an artificial opioid, could be 50 occasions extra highly effective than heroin and 100 occasions extra highly effective than morphine, in line with the DEA. Fentanyl was developed as a ache administration therapy for most cancers sufferers however has change into a extensively used avenue drug linked to 1000's of deaths from overdoses.
In keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, there have been greater than 107,000 drug overdose deaths within the U.S. in 2021, with artificial opioids accounting for about 71,000 of these.
Earlier this month, Milgram instructed "CBS Mornings" that two Mexican cartels had been believed to accountable for an inflow of fentanyl within the U.S.
"It is man-made," Milgram mentioned within the Aug. 19 interview. "So it is essential to know that there's an infinite quantity that these two cartels could make. All they want are precursor chemical compounds that they're shopping for from China, from these Chinese language chemical corporations, bringing them to Mexico and synthesizing huge portions."
In July, authorities found a half-ton of fentanyl in a warehouse in Culiacan, Mexico, in what could have been the most important fentanyl seizure in historical past. It had an estimated avenue worth of $230 million.