How To Identify Fake Prescription Opioids

America is home to a thriving demand for diverted prescription pills, with many eager to access trusted prescription drugs either to get high or to self-treat pain or feelings of anxiety and stress.

However, in recent years this runaway demand for opioid painkillers has generated a new public health threat, as drug trafficking rings continue to smuggle large volumes of dangerous, counterfeit prescription opioid products into the nation with tragic results.

Real Vs. Fake Opioid Painkillers

Drugs such as hydrocodone, oxymorphone, oxycodone, morphine, codeine, tramadol, and fentanyl have become household names both for their ability to relieve severe pain and chronic pain, and because they produce a highly addictive and dangerous euphoria when abused in higher doses.

These drugs can be found in brand-name pharmaceutical products like OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin as well as generic equivalents of these same medications.

Each prescription opioid may also come in a variety of dosages and formulations with an entire constellation of characteristic colorations, shapes, and markings.

Unfortunately, counterfeit painkillers can also be produced in a variety of shapes, colors, and imprints, many of which are made to very closely resemble legitimate prescription medications.

These fake products (usually produced overseas in covert drug labs), however, are not subject to any quality controls or regulations and can be made with no active ingredients at all or with alternative ingredients that vary wildly in dosage and risk.

How To Identify Fake Opioid Medications

If you find or receive tablets, capsules, or pills and aren’t sure what they are or whether or not they are legitimate, the only way to be sure what they contain is through professional lab testing.

While professionals may be able to tell the difference between fakes and authentic medications based on coloration or the fine details of a pill’s markings, counterfeits are often simply too close a match to be ruled out based on appearance alone.

Fentanyl Test Strips

While fentanyl test strips can detect deadly fentanyl pills or confirm that fentanyl is not present, counterfeit medications are made with such a wide range of other dangerous illicit drugs or harmful ingredients that no test strip can rule out all possibilities.

Only Use Prescribed Medication As Directed

The only safe option is to only ever use medications that have been properly prescribed to you, and which you picked up from a legitimate pharmacy or other healthcare provider.

Likewise, these medications should only ever be used as directed, and any excess medication should be properly disposed of after it is no longer needed.

Dangers Of Counterfeit Opioid Products

While some counterfeit opioid painkillers contain no pain-relieving or euphoric properties, many have been made with the hyper-potent and lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl or other dangerous ingredients ranging from methamphetamine to experimental drugs and industrial chemicals.

Fentanyl-Laced Drugs

The influx of fake pills containing fentanyl is especially concerning. Fentanyl is a Schedule II drug with a potency as much as 50x greater than heroin.

Medically it can be used to treat severe breakthrough pain, often related to cancer pain. However, for those with the right equipment, the drug can be easy to produce, cheap, portable, and potent, with a lethal dose only around the size of a grain or two of salt.

This, in many tragic cases, has caused those who took fake prescription pills to experience dramatic side-effects, including numerous accidental drug overdose deaths.

In 2022 alone, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 58.3 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills, part of an estimated 387 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl seized that year (approximately 50 million more than the current population of the United States).

And, even if not immediately lethal, abusing fake opioid products can also lead to addiction and a wide variety of other long-term dangers.

Other Fake Prescription Medications

While opioid medications made with fentanyl or other experimental opioid-class compounds are of particular concern to law enforcement personnel and public health officials, a wide variety of other types of medications are also sometimes counterfeited.

This includes prescription stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium, and many other prescription medications with the potential for abuse.

Treating Substance Abuse & Prescription Drug Addiction

Using counterfeit medications is a dangerous gamble, and your life could be on the line with each dose. But those who struggle with a substance use disorder and the cravings and compulsions of drug addiction will often take this risk anyway.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

If you or a loved one are living with harmful, chronic substance abuse or drug dependence, don’t wait for the risks to pile up.

At Bedrock Recovery Center, we offer evidence-based addiction treatment and recovery services, including:

• medical detoxification
• residential treatment for substance use disorders featuring group and individual behavioral therapy
• residential psychiatric treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders
• medication-assisted treatment
• aftercare support and case management

To learn more about how we can help, please contact us today.