Time to crack down on deadly knock-off opioids » Albuquerque Journal

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For far too many young people, especially in New Mexico, taking drugs has become synonymous with having fun. And while that’s been true for decades, today taking a pill being passed around at a party can be the last thing you ever do.

As Journal investigative reporter Colleen Heild revealed in this week’s Sunday Journal, “that light blue pill someone offers you could be prescription oxycodone painkiller. It might just be an antacid manufactured to look like oxycodone. Or, it could be a knockoff containing fentanyl that can kill you with a single dose. You never know.”

Over the past year, plastic baggies of such pills containing the deadly opioid fentanyl – 50 times more powerful than heroin – have shown up at drug busts, traffic stops and other law enforcement operations in New Mexico. One APD supervisor said “nobody has any idea what’s in this pill, even the dealers selling it. This looks like medication from the doctor. And that’s what’s scary. The public thinks this is somehow better than using heroin or meth.”

Think again. Heild’s report describes in heartbreaking detail the needless loss of yet another young New Mexico life due to “bad” fentanyl.

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Her report drives home the point it’s past time to focus on stopping the distribution of doctored drugs.

Just round up the dealers, right? Well, dealers are minions in an international chain of destruction that often starts with China, a renowned player in fentanyl manufacturing. The fentanyl is often shipped to Mexico, where it is pressed into pills. But when dealers get their supply, they – just like their customers – often have no idea what chemicals and/or other substances went into making that pill.

Consider – a minuscule amount of fentanyl, equivalent to several grains of salt, can prove fatal.

So, is the answer to target the suppliers and manufacturers and force them to shut down their lucrative businesses? In April, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez announced the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which would impose sanctions on China and Chinese entities that supply and support the trafficking of fentanyl, and also allow new funding to law enforcement to fight foreign opioid trafficking.

That’s a start. Here at home the very least we can do is ensure those who peddle death in our communities face some very real repercussions, as well as use law enforcement to generate genuine fear/education among N.M. suppliers, dealers and users.

In 2007, 18,515 people in the U.S. died due to opioids. In 2017, 47,600 died; nearly 60% of them involving fentanyl.

Enough is enough.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.