Officials report rise in deadly opioid fentanyl use in Montana | ABC Fox Missoula

Law enforcement officials say they’re seeing a rise in use of the synthetic opioid called fentanyl, and this drug can be very dangerous if used improperly.

Both the Missoula Police Department and the Montana State Crime Lab are investigating possible cases of fentanyl, police say.

Missoula Police put out a warning on Facebook about the distribution of fentanyl pills being marked as oxycodone.

This is extremely dangerous because fentanyl is 40 to 50 times stronger than oxycodone, which can cause a person’s body to go into complete shock or worst case scenario, can lead to death.

Missoula Police Detective Sergeant Rick Stevenson said police are starting to see some suspected cases with fentanyl, but they are still waiting for test results. 

“We’re starting to see some attempts at trying to disguise and hide the actual content of fentanyl in certain drugs, so they’re making it look like drugs that you would normally get from a doctor’s office for prescription, that type of thing,” Stevenson said.

The real versus fake oxycodone pills look very similar. State Crime Lab Administrator Scott Larson said drug makers can use a “pill press” to make imitation opioids.

“The pills themselves would look like what would be like an oxycodone or a hydrocodone or a pill that you would get from your pharmacist, but what’s inside would be something completely different,” Larson said.

Larson said when they get these types of cases they use a machine to determine what drugs are really in the pill.

“Most of the time, especially historically, if it looked like an oxycodone pill it would be an oxycodone pill. Or if it looked like an apresoline it would be an apresoline, but now we don’t always know,” said Larson.

And because of this, law enforcement said it’s important to only take drug prescriptions that are prescribed to you, since you just never know what you’re really getting.

“It could happen anywhere with anyone you know because there’s a good chance that they don’t know what they have,” Stevenson said.