Overdoses In State Linked To Fake Prescription Pills On The Rise, OBN Says

More overdoses in the state are linked to fake prescription pills, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control said Wednesday.

In early May, OBN investigated when two individuals died from overdoses in central Oklahoma after buying counterfeit oxycodone. The counterfeit pills tested positive for fentanyl.

OBN spokesman Mark Woodward said at least six more overdoses and four more deaths can be attributed to these counterfeit pills.

“Fentanyl is a powerful and cheap drug that can be 100 to 1000 times more potent than Morphine or heroin. It is sold on the black market and used by drug organizations as a filler in heroin or pressed into pills that resemble legitimate U.S. pharmaceuticals,” Woodward said.

The six additional overdoses happened in communities in southern, southwest and south, central Oklahoma and involved the same type of pills.

“Most of the pills were blue in color and stamped to look like 30 milligram oxycodone. Side-by-side, it would be hard for anyone to tell the difference. We are concerned there are more of these pills circulating the streets and we could see additional overdose victims,” Woodward said.

So far, three poeple have been arrested and several hundred fake oxycodone pills were seized.

Anyone with information is asked to call OBN at 800-522-8031.