The Drug Enforcement Administration is issuing a safety alert for the first time in six years, warning of a dramatic spike in overdose deaths from counterfeit prescription drugs. The agency says the fake pills are being laced with lethal amounts of fentanyl and meth. Dr. Ayana Jordan, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University’s School of Medicine, joins CBSN’s Ed O’Keefe with more on how this is exacerbating the opioid crisis.
The drug enforcement administration’s warning of a surge in overdose deaths from fake prescription drugs the warning comes as the cdc estimates more than 93 thousand americans died a record high from drug doses in 2020 alone the agency says the counterfeit pills are being laced with fentanyl and methamphetamine it’s the dea’s first public safety alert in six years
The last was in 2015 when officials warned of a rise in fentanyl-laced heroin for more i want to bring in dr ayana jordan she’s an assistant professor of psychiatry at yale university school of medicine doctor thank you so much for spending some time with us on what is a really important and probably too often discussed subject but one that really affects people uh
In incredible ways um how broadly has the pandemic impacted access to addiction treatment yeah thank you so much for having me on and covering this such important topic the pandemic has made it much more difficult for people to access substance use treatment i try not to use abuse because that’s a derogatory term so really wanting to make sure people understand
We’re talking about substance use disorder substance use treatment it’s made it harder because there is uh difficulty accessing physicians a lot of people have um uh scaled down in terms of their in-person uh office hours and so um many people are relying on telehealth in order to see their physicians and if you don’t have access to wi-fi or the technology to
Be able to access treatment it’s much much harder there have been some gains within the pandemic to make it easier for people who are already in treatment to get access to their medication for example there is a medication that’s called methadone that treats people with opioid use disorder and it is much easier in terms of them to get their medication they used
To have to come in every single day up to six days a week to get their medication and during the pandemic there were regulations to allow them to get their medication for 14 days or 28 days instead of coming every day but again that’s for people who are already engaged in treatment and so it’s much more difficult because there’s just a lot less availability of
Physician time also there’s been a decrease specifically an addiction psychiatry specialist going into the field so it’s really hard overall and we’re going to see the uh consequences of people not being able to get into addiction treatment we’re already seeing them now and have been quite frankly for the last 10 years yeah so back to that new warning from the
Dea what kind of counterfeit pills are being found and and what makes them so dangerous and deadly yeah um so what’s happening and again i just wanted to reiterate that this is not something that is new i mean i’m glad that the dja is talking about it but again we’ve been seeing this uptick in drug overdose death from fentanyl for the last um uh five to six years
And so what the dea is bringing attention to is um kills that are um laced with fentanyl they are uh really you know seen as actual opioid peels something that you would see like a percocet or um medicine that you would get from the actual doctor but again it is um it’s counterfeit so this is what people are are coming in contact with and is really causing that
Unintentional overdoses now one of the things i want to say is that pills are not the only way that people are using um this uh these these substances and are being exposed to fentanyl we’re seeing it in methamphetamine exactly we’re seeing it in zannis or what’s called zany bars we’re seeing it in heroin and cocaine so the real issue is i’m not having access
To a safe supply of substances and people not knowing that there is this fentanyl which is a man-made opioid that is in the supply so i i get that um there is a focus on the pills but i just want us to be more broad-reaching and understanding that people are getting access to uh fentanyl through methamphetamine xanax uh heroin cocaine other things beyond the pills
Which is contributing to this massive increase in um drug overdose deaths for sure no yeah absolutely that’s a good reminder um can how can users tell whether they’ve gotten fentanyl or meth instead of something else such a good question so as an addiction specialist one of the things that i um talk about all the time is the best way that you know that you can uh
That if to know if something is in your substance is to test it and unfortunately in the united states we have no way to test the uh supply um that people are using and so one of the things that a lot of harm reductionists and addiction specialists are calling for is for safe testing sites and these are implemented in spain and switzerland and belgium and austria
And portugal and even in the netherlands where people are actually able to test to see if they have fentanyl in their uh illicit substance whether it be a pill whether it be cocaine whether it be methamphetamines and that way if they find the presence of fentanyl they know not to use it unfortunately this is not widely available in this country and it is really
Um leading to unnecessary and reversible deaths so when i am treating patients in a clinic i actually give them fentanyl strips and i teach them how they can um dilute the product use the strip and if two lines come up you know that it’s positive and you don’t want to use it but again those are for people who are already in treatment and lots of people who use
Substances are not in treatment we know it’s harder to get access to treatment than the pandemic so we want to um increase access to drug checking sites but the only way to know because you can’t tell by looking at it you can’t tell is to actually test the substance itself and for those who are battling drug addiction uh especially right now in the pandemic where
There may be concern about access to people like you who uh can help with this what resources would you recommend and where should they turn if they’re seeking treatment yeah yeah thank you so much one of the best resources is um samhsa which uh really is the mental health and addiction site for the country and so to access that you want to go to yeah that’s the
Sampson national helpline it’s 1-800-662-help or 1-800-666-4357 samhsa.gov and then you can key in and where you can get access to addiction treatment by your uh state and also in your county so that’s a really nice way to to try and get help for sure well dr ariana jordan we appreciate you taking some time on an issue that continues to affect so many across the
Country amid all the other problems we have thanks for your time yeah thanks for having me have a good night you too
Transcribed from video
Fake prescription drugs laced with fentanyl fueling spike in overdose deaths, DEA warns By CBS News
