Fake Pills Popping Up In American Schools, Threatening The Lives Of Students

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According to KIVI in Nampa, Idaho, David Gomez, a School Resource Officer with the Meridian Police Department, is alarmed at what is turning up at the local high school: pills. Although the most frequently found pills are Xanax, Adderall, and Vicodin, it is the ones that are made at home, that the kids refer to as “pressies,” that have him most concerned. Gomez said, “...they can order some of the ingredients, they can kind of tailor-make some pills and actually press them together themselves and sell them.”

The result of someone taking unknown or unprescribed pills can be dangerous or even deadly.  Gomez said, “We see things at the school…kids just walking around and then they fall over, they miss a door completely, they bang into things. All of these prescription pills have different effects on everybody.”

School across the country are concerned about counterfeit pills being taken by their students. As reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, in September 2017, a group of students who attended San Pasqual High School in Escondido, CA became ill after taking pills said to have been Xanax. One month later, students at two other Escondido schools also became ill after taking Xanax. As of December 2017, authorities were still not sure if the pills taken were real or counterfeits. The Oregonian reported in October 2017 that toxicology test results were pending in the sudden death of a 17-year-old student in Portland. There was a growing problem with counterfeit Xanax in the area at the time.

Gomez says starting a conversation with your kids about the safe use of prescription drugs is essential and he recommends the safe disposal of any unused or unwanted pills. Learn more about the dangers of fentanyl and how it gets imported and turned into counterfeit pills by reading and sharing Fentanyl 101.