ACTION: Raise penalties for manufacturing fake pills using illegal pill presses
Drug counterfeiters are rarely prosecuted for using Illegal pill presses, even though the machines cost American lives. Help increase the criminal penalties for those caught distributing controlled substances with them.
Synopsis:
Illegal pill presses are the source of a great many counterfeits that harm Americans. Over the past five years, families in 39 states lost family members to counterfeit pills, many of them made here in America using illegal pill presses and molds. Penalties for possessing an illegal pill press are not significant enough to deter criminals from using them. In fact, possession of an illegal pill press or mold is a crime that's rarely even charged by prosecutors.
We aim to change that.
Current Status:
Representative Kustoff of Tennessee and Senator Cassidy of Louisiana introduced the CAST Act in both houses of Congress in September 2019. Neither bill has left committee.
What you can do:
Constituents need to create interest in the CAST Act order to make it law.
Use the form at the right to tell your elected officials in the House and Senate to co-sponsor HR 4510, the Criminalizing Abused Substance Templates (CAST) Act from Rep. Kustoff (R-TN-8) and Rep. Spanberger (D-VA-7) and S. 2573 from Sen. Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Hassan (D-NH).
Background / resources:
- Visit our Pill Press report page to read how poor regulation of pill presses and pill molds in the U.S. threaten the lives of our citizens.
- Download "Pill Presses and the New Decentralized Counterfeit Trade," which explains how criminals make counterfeit pills using pill presses.
Stories about counterfeit drugs and pill presses
Richard Henry of Grand Junction, Colorado was arrested after law enforcement officers from multiple agencies found a pill press, hundreds each of fake Xanax and “small blue pills” made with fentanyl, and assortment of other powders in the closet of his apartment. This story is one of many recently in the news pointing to the fact that counterfeit fentanyl pills are a growing problem in western Colorado…
Deputies from the Walton County Georgia Sheriff’s Office disrupted four men attempting to move their counterfeit pill operation into their county. Austin Marshall, Jakob Sullins, Nicholas Felker, and Timothy Ballard were arrested before they even had the chance to unload their pill press that was capable of making 16,000 pills in one hour…
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Gino Carl von Eckstein after he was found in possession of counterfeit Adderall pills he manufactured using methamphetamine. A search of his car and several properties turned up fake pills, additional powder, and two pills presses needed to make the pills…
A pretrial bail hearing gave the world some insights into a case out of South Carolina that is still sealed. Agents with a DEA-lead task force arrested Eric Hughes in August of 2017 after a car accident caused thousands of plls to spill out of his vehicle and onto the roadway. Hughes is allegedly the leader of a counterfeit pill drug ring that used rental properties to manufacture millions of counterfeit Xanax and oxycodone pills which were sold online…
A major drug ring that operated in both North and South Carolina has been busted. 17 homes were searched, 14 people indicted and 11 are already in custody. Police suspect that the raid spooked someone because they dumped 7,000 fentanyl pills on a street…
A Westover, Connecticut man is under arrest, and authorities there have uncovered a counterfeit Percocet factory in a barn that was producing enough carfentanil pills to kill half the population of Stamford
Ohio resident Alexander Henize faces 16 counts after a search of the home he shared with his girlfriend and their 2-year-old daughter turned up an industrial pill press and 11 pounds of fentanyl…
IL resident Skyler Dean Prahl pleaded guilty to introducing a misbranded drug into commerce. Prahl used a pharmaceutical powdered purchased from overseas to make Tramadol pills, which he sold online to customers around the U.S…
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