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They look exactly like the real thing, stamped with letters or numbers and colored to appear like Xanax, Percocet, Adderal or oxycodone.

And the pills are easily available on websites, social media and the dark web.

In thepast three months, drug enforcement agents have seized more than 2,000 counterfeit pills in central Ohio, saidBrian McNeal, public information officer for the Drug Enforcement Agency, Detroit field division, which includes Ohio.

"Theseare pills that are being mixed up in some warehouse or barn or some other place. … They're being marketed as legitimate drugs, butthere's no quality control," McNeal said.

International and domestic criminal drug networks are mass-producing fake pills, falsely marketing them as legitimate prescription pills, and killing unsuspecting Americans, according to a recent advisory from the DEA, promoting theOne Pill Can Kill campaign

Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, or any number of other illicit drugs, and seized by the DEA havejumped nearly 430% since 2019. DEA laboratory testing further reveals that two out of every five pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose. Additionally, methamphetamine is increasingly being pressed into counterfeit pills.

Some of the pills are merely being disguised as real, while containing illegal doses of heroin, methamphetamine or fentanyl. Both buyer and seller usea language ofcodedemojis to strike a deal, McNeal said.A brown heart and dragon stand forheroin, for example.

Others purport to be real medicine, offered to those desperate to feel better and willing to resort to an online sale.

Most raw materials originatein China, then are shipped to Mexico for processing where they'remixed and cut with chemicals and pressed into molds, akin to a child's Play-Doh set, only perpetrators are "business-minded, sophisticated," McNeal said.

"The drug cartels don't care if they kill offtheir customer base. They just want to make money," McNeal said.

Last year, there were100,000 overdosedeaths nationwide, up to 70% of those from opioids. From October through December, the DEA seized 8 million counterfeit pills.

"As long as there's greed, there's really not going to be a solution. These counterfeit pills are not designed to relieve pain," McNeal said. "The end result is cash."

McNeal advises parents or loved ones to be alert for changes in behavior and check computers or phones for emojis.

"I've got agents that could sit you down and order it in the mail and have it arrive at your house," he said. The dealers and cartels "are taking advantage of ourcomfort level with legitimate pills. There's this misnomer that because it's a pill it's not bad."

dnarciso@dispatch.com

@DeanNarciso

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DEA: Surge of counterfeit pills flooding the internet, claiming lives - The Columbus Dispatch