Fentanyl has flooded the DC region over the years, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that this past year has seized 250% more of those pills than they did the previous year.
And 70% of the pills seized contained lethal amounts of fentanyl.
The part that keeps Special Agent Jarod Forget (pronounced for-jay) up at night is how closely the fake pills resemble real medications.
“Young people in particular think they’re taking a legitimate pill, when in fact it’s a fake pill,” says Forget. “I’ve been a DEA for over 20 years, I cannot tell the difference between a fake pill that’s made to look like a legitimate oxycodone, Percocet, or Xanax.”
Forget is the Special Agent in charge of the DEA’s Washington Division, which covers DC, Virginia and Maryland.
The Washington Division seized 639,000 fake pills in its jurisdiction during 2023, as well as 189 pounds of fentanyl powder.
Maryland’s portion of that was 132,000 pills seized, a 471% increase from 2022.
The message Forget wants Marylanders to remember is that with these kinds of deadly pills, just one pill can kill.