January 29, 2024: Family advocates distribute lifesaving medicine at Naloxone Hill Day in Washington DC
Major Stories
Facing Fentanyl Now and the Alexander Neville Foundation are marking Naloxone Hill Day by distributing naloxone kits and fentanyl prevention materials at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The drug, which temporarily stops opioid overdoses and poisonings, has saved thousands of American lives and is an important tool in the fentanyl epidemic. It was approved for over-the-counter sale in 2023.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) announced that the Veterans Health Administration would be using Pulse, the NABP’s digital DSCSA platform, to help with Drug Supply Chain Security Act compliance and ensure that their prescription medication suppliers are appropriately licensed. Learn more about Pulse: Watch our August 2023 demo, and visit NABP’s Pulse website.
According to Reuters, America’s Poison Centers received 66 reports of people suffering from hypoglycemia after injecting Ozempic or compounded versions of the drug in 2023. Three patients in the same region were hospitalized after injecting Ozempic that authorities suspect was counterfeit.
Facing Fentanyl Now and the Alexander Neville Foundation will distribute naloxone in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room SD-G11, on February 1, 2024 between 11 am and 2 pm.
International News
U.K. authorities reported deaths from nitazenes in counterfeit pills. Counterfeits in Libya and Pakistan.
In the United Kingdom, 66 people have died over the last six months from nitazene poisoning. The powerful synthetic opioids have been found in heroin as well as in counterfeit codeine, Valium and Xanax pills.
Authorities in Libya arrested a man who allegedly counterfeited painkillers and diabetes treatments, including paracetamol, Janumet and metformin.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency shut down a factory in Lahore that manufactured 19 different kinds of fake veterinary medicines.
A drug testing service in Wales found that this fake diazepam pill contained metonitazene (WEDINOS)
Domestic News
A West Virginia man admitted making fake oxycodone with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. A dark web drug trafficker pleaded guilty to selling illicit drugs, including pills, to all 50 U.S. states. CBP in Texas seized hundreds of pounds of tramadol.
CBP officers in Texas seized these boxes containing 159 pounds of tramadol from a commercial truck at the World Trade Bridge. (CBP)
Customs and Border Protection officers at the Laredo, Texas Port of Entry seized 159 pounds of tramadol from the cab of a commercial truck crossing the World Trade Bridge.
Timothy Brian Jackson of South Charleston, West Virginia pleaded guilty to manufacturing and intending to distribute fake oxycodone pills made with fentanyl or other dangerous opioids, including protonitazene and butonitazene. When officers searched Jackson’s home in August 2022, they found 10,000 counterfeit pills, several pill presses, punch and die kits used to imprint the pills with “M30” markings, a pharmacy-grade powder mixing machine, and other pill-making supplies.
After a lengthy extradition process, Banmeet Singh, an Indian national, pleaded guilty in federal court to selling tens of thousands of pills, including Xanax and tramadol, and hundreds of kilograms of other illicit substances on the dark web. Singh-controlled distribution sites in Florida, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Washington repackaged drugs from overseas and shipped them to locations in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica and the United Kingdom and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Singh also agreed to forfeit $150 million in cryptocurrency.