Since 2015, fentanyl has changed the drug landscape

Counterfeit pills made with fentanyl have proliferated across the U.S. since 2015, killing people in all 50 states. The pills have become heavily trafficked, easier to find and more deadly.

This infographic shows how the fentanyl pill trade has changed.

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Illegal Pill Presses Pose Serious, Nationwide Threat to American Patients and Communities

cover 2021 update on pill presses

The Partnership for Safe Medicines and the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators have released an update to 2019’s Illegal Pill Presses: An Overlooked Threat to American Patients.

Since the initial report, fentanyl deaths are higher than ever and these pills – created by clandestine pill presses around the globe – continue to be sold on the streets and on the dark web.

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Are safety-tested imported drugs still cheaper? No. They are more expensive.

Testing medicine for legitimacy is a complicated process. Across 24 different prescription medicines, the average cost to test a single dose is $2,750. However, ensuring that a batch of 100 pills is 90% certain to be safe requires testing at least 22 pills. Achieving 99.999% certainty requires even more testing, at tremendous expense. Once you’ve done the required testing, U.S. generics are cheaper. To learn more about this topic, read PSM’s summary: safedr.ug/Acri-Explained.

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