Congress looks for ways to crack down on counterfeit opioids

Members of Congress are looking for ways to crack down on one of the tools of the trade for criminals making dangerous, fake pills.

A House committee investigating the opioid crisis sent a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration that it wants answered by next week.

The committee wants to know why anyone can buy a machine that can churn out counterfeit drugs.

They seem easily available online: machines that press powder into pills.

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Sellers say they're for making vitamins, or candy, but safety advocates say the machines also have more dangerous uses.

"So it seems there is a whole new methodology that counterfeiters are using," said Sam Louis, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted drug counterfeiting cases.

He says makers of fake drugs are ordering machines, usually from China, and pressing out pills with names like Percocet.

The real ingredients are unknown, and often contain the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S. and our area.

"These pills look so much like the actual medication that it's hard for people to even realize it's something that could kill them instantly," said Jane Terry with the National Safety Council.

A recent report found counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl have been found in 40 states and in 16 of those states, there are reported deaths.

"If someone says, 'I got it from my cousin' and you really don't know where this is coming from - it's not worth the risk," Louis said.

The DEA issued rules earlier this year requiring anyone who buys a tableting machine to report it, but the equipment is often intentionally mislabeled.

Members of Congress want to know how the DEA is enforcing those rules and how many of the machines have been seized.

Cox Media Group