Four die in 24 hours from bogus pills promising ‘painkiller high,’ Calif. sheriff says
After counterfeit oxycodone pills killed four people in the San Diego area in 24 hours, authorities are asking the public to beware — and are investigating to see if other overdoses in the region are tied to those imitation pills.
The four deaths linked to the blue pills were in Lakeside, Poway, Santee and Valley Center, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release on Thursday night.
“The illicit pills are known as M-30s. They are very common counterfeit oxycodone,” deputies said in the release. “These painkillers are known to contain fentanyl. Fentanyl is frequently involved in overdose deaths because a speck the size of a grain of salt or just one touch can kill you. M-30s can be taken orally or crushed for smoking.”
The sheriff’s department said investigators are working with first responders to see if similar overdoses occurred in the same time period as the four reported deaths.
“Our detectives treat each of these overdose deaths as a crime scene, and we are following up on the source of supply for these illicit pharmaceuticals,” Undersheriff Mike Barnett said at a news conference on Thursday, CNN reports.
Barnett said that in 2017, San Diego County experienced 273 “unintentional prescription overdoses,” compared to 253 in 2016, NBC reports.
Overdoses on this particular kind of opioid are cropping up across the country. The blue pills stamped with an M, sometimes called “Mexican oxy,” have spread across the Southwest and resulted in deaths, the Associated Press reported in February. Investigators said those who take the drug thinking it’s oxycodone can realize too late that it may be laced with deadly fentanyl.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in 30 years, this toll that it’s taken on families,” said Doug Coleman, the Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge in Arizona, according to AP. “The crack (cocaine) crisis was not as bad.”
The pills can sell for between $9 and $30, AP reports.
Taking the drugs at parties “is a lot more widespread than we know,” Yavapai County Sheriff’s Lt. Nate Auvenshine said, according to AP. “There’s less stigma to taking a pill than putting a needle in your arm, but one of these pills can have enough fentanyl for three people.”
The drug has also spread beyond California and the Southwest, with Mississippi authorities now reporting “Mexican oxy” on the streets, the Sun Herald reported in March.
“Typically these are made with pill presses in people’s residences and made to look like the legitimate pills and sold on the street,” Barnett said following the San Diego overdose deaths, according to Fox News.
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 8:12 AM with the headline "Four die in 24 hours from bogus pills promising ‘painkiller high,’ Calif. sheriff says."
