Assume twice earlier than shopping for tablets south of the border — over half are laced with medicine like fentanyl and meth, investigation warns

• The LA Occasions examined tablets from Mexican pharmacies and located over 50% had been counterfeits.
• Cartels flooded Mexico with counterfeit medicine, endangering vacationers looking for low-cost treatment.
• Tablets claiming to be Adderall or Percoset contained meth, fentanyl, and different harmful substances.

A Los Angeles Occasions investigation discovered that pharmacies throughout Mexico promote counterfeit and tainted tablets. Reporters bought and examined 55 tablets from 29 pharmacies in eight Mexican cities, from Tijuana to Tulum. Of these, 28 tablets — simply over 50% — had been counterfeit.

The pretend tablets mimic sought-after drugs like Adderall, Percocet, and oxycodone, and lots of had been bought in sealed blister packaging or bottles. However testing revealed them to comprise methamphetamine, fentanyl, MDMA, and different substances.

Over a 3rd of the opioid painkillers examined contained fentanyl, an artificial opioid 50 to 100 occasions highly effective than morphine and liable for a spike in overdose deaths within the US.

Fentanyl is utilized by producers of illicit medicine to chop their provide. The artificial drug is less expensive to supply and lighter to move, so it’s economically helpful for these producing the medicine, coverage consultants beforehand instructed Insider.

At the least six People have overdosed or died after taking counterfeit tablets from Mexican pharmacies, in line with the LA Occasions. As a result of Mexico doesn’t routinely do toxicology experiences, it is exhausting to guage what number of of its residents have been affected.

“That is simply horrible — it exhibits an utter lack of management in pharmacies,” stated Vanda Felbab-Brown, an knowledgeable on drug cartels on the Brookings Establishment, instructed the LA Occasions. “It is institutionalized homicide.”

Although the DEA has been conscious of the problem for years, little has been performed to handle it. With no regulation, cartels have infiltrated Mexico’s drugstores with deadly counterfeits. “It is institutionalized homicide,” an knowledgeable instructed the LA Occasions.

The US State Division has issued a warning to vacationers in March after earlier LA Occasions reporting, telling People to “train warning” when shopping for drugs in Mexico.

Learn the complete LA Occasions story right here.