A FOX 11 investigation is taking you into the world of “xans” and “bars”, counterfeit Xanax pills taken by young adults which could be laced with the extremely deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“Imagine three to five grains of table salt, that’s the potential fatal dose for an adult,” said Marlon Whitfield of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Los Angeles division. “If you take one of these pills, there’s a chance you may die.
Xans have been glorified by hip hop artists in the music industry, they’ve appeared in numerous of their music videos, and they’re being sold all over social media, especially Instagram, including by a popular DJ in the San Fernando Valley.
“I think the reason Xanax is popular with the kids is it’s being popularized in music, social media platforms, it’s in almost every song, my son even asked me what’s molly Percocet, and he’s nine years old,” Whitfield said. “Fentanyl has been pouring in from China, where there are looser regulations and an abundant amount of pharmaceutical companies.
Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin, and 100 times more powerful than morphine. It can be used legitimately with a doctor to treat acute pain, but the DEA says fentanyl is finding its way into counterfeit Xanax which is now being sold on American streets. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]In a surprise reversal, the maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said Saturday that it will stop promoting opioid drugs to doctors.
Manufacturer Purdue bowed to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the Connecticut-based company for helping trigger the opioid epidemic.
The company’s statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors’ offices to discuss opioid drugs.
Its remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications.
“The genie is already out of the bottle,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University and an advocate for stronger regulation of opioid drug companies. “Millions of Americans are now opioid-addicted because the campaign that Purdue and other opioid manufacturers used to increase prescribing worked well. ” – READ MORE
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