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Tips for parents: How to keep your kids safe from counterfeit prescription pills

Terry DeMio
Cincinnati Enquirer

Counterfeit prescription pills are pouring into the United States from the Mexican-U.S. border. Experts and law enforcement agents who have seen them are sending up alarms: Don't use anything that's not prescribed to you.

They look like legitimate pharmaceutical pills, says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and regional and state drug analysts.

Counterfeit drugs:Fake prescription pills kill kids, inexperienced users in latest version of epidemic

Think it's Adderall? Think again.

A counterfeit Adderall (stimulant) pill that U.S. Drug Enforcement agents seized. Counterfeit pills are often made or tainted with fentanyl, the agency says.

The fake prescription pills look like Adderall, Xanax, Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin and others. But they contain other drugs, including deadly fentanyl and methamphetamine.

If you're a parent, start a conversation with your teenager or young-adult child, said Jason Schumacher, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's Cincinnati district office.

"Kids are using smartphones to get the pills. They're using emojis to arrange pick-ups, he said.

With its One Pill Can Kill campaign, the DEA offers parents these and other tips:

  • Make sure kids know the content of the pills sold as prescription medication is not precise and may include other drugs including fentanyl.
  • Check your kids' searches online for "How to buy __ online," searches.
  • Tell your kids about cases of young people overdosing from the pills.
  • Monitor any packages delivered to your child.
  • Educate yourself on the potential danger and on maintaining a good relationship with your teen.
  • Look for behavior changes in your child.

The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center put out a public service alert and offers tips including these signs of fake pills:

  • The tablets do not come from a licensed healthcare provider.
  • The tablets are not in prescription packaging (such as a labeled pill bottle).
  • The tablets are being sold individually or in unusually small quantities.
  • The tablets are being sold in unusually large quantities.

Counterfeit pills have been seized in Greater Cincinnati as well as throughout the state, the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center notes. The Hamilton County Crime Laboratory has seen an influx of the counterfeits from 2020 to 2021 from law enforcement agencies in the Cincinnati region.

“You can order it on Facebook," said Benjamin Suver, director of law enforcement initiatives for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. . "They're delivering through social media."

“It is essentially Amazon online: If you name a type of drug, we can mail it … and deliver it right to your home.”

For more information and tools for parents from the U.S. DEA, go to DEA.gov/onepill.  To see tips and information from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, go to publicsafety.ohio.gov.