News Coverage
The Partnership for Safe Medicines has been publishing information about the counterfeit drug problem around the world for more than a decade. With experts leading the organization and a committed and passionate set of writers and editors, our content is more in-depth than many other sources, which simply copy links to the news from other websites.
We’ve all heard politicians promise cheaper drugs imported from other countries, but are they just saying that because we want to hear it? Do they have any expertise that suggests they know how to make such a system safe?
This editorial by Nigel Rawson was published in The Hills Times on June 9, 2019. Dr. Rawson, president of Eastlake Research Group, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, and an affiliated scholar with the Canadian Health Policy Institute, warns that Canada would run out of necessary medicine if U.S. states begin drug importation programs…
Washington, D.C. (June 11, 2019) – Shabbir Imber Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement today in response to the signing of Florida’s drug importation bill: “Today, Florida’s governor put politics over the safety of residents across the state. Although this was widely expected, we remain committed to protecting…
Three Los Angeles-based companies, and five individual defendants have proffered guilty pleas on charges that they were making and distributing herbal supplements containing dangerous levels of prescription pharmaceuticals.
“I’m pleased to re-join the Partnership for Safe Medicines’ Board of Directors at a time when factual information concerning the risks posed by medicines reaching unsuspecting Americans is critically needed” said Tom.
Former DEA agent Doug Herber wrote this editorial, which was published on May 31, 2019 in the White Mountain Independent. In it, he writes that drug importation will cause “patients [to] unwittingly purchase foreign counterfeit drugs disguised as low-level medication, unaware of the dangers, end up as an overdose statistic. “
According to the Department of the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, “The Goldpharma network illustrates the sophisticated tactics drug traffickers and money launderers use to capitalize on the Internet and online pharmacy sites to sell highly addictive illicit narcotics around the world.”
This editorial by Holly Strom and Kenneth Schell published in U.S. News and World Report on May 28, 2019 warns states considering drug importation that doing so will not keep costs down and also poses a safety risk to patients…
A group of six people, five men and one woman all in their early twenties have been indicted on federal charges that they were using industrial pill presses to make counterfeit Xanax and fentanyl/carfentanil pills. They are also accused of selling the fake pills throughout Georgia via the Internet.
In this editorial, which was published in The Bend Bulletin on May 21, 2019, Canadian law enforcement veteran Don Bell explains why Oregonians can not rely on Canada for safe prescription drugs.
Dozens of the most highly qualified law enforcement officials and former, senior staff at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration have conducted in-depth analyses that show Canadian drug importation will lead to a massive increase in counterfeit drugs entering the U.S.
PSM started to track reported incidences of counterfeit pills made with fentanyl in October 2015. With the recent seizure in Kansas City, Kansas is the 47th state in which PSM has documented these deadly fake pills having been found in…
Koledin ran a website called awakebrain dot com that marketed and sold misbranded and unapproved medication imported from Russia and China. It describes several instances when either the website or emails from Koledin described medications as FDA-approved, when in fact they were not.
The FDA has strict oversight and controls on our pharmaceutical industry. From cradle-to-grave, the FDA ensures American consumers receive safe, uncontaminated pharmaceutical medications. These FDA assurances don’t apply to foreign pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical drugs are the most counterfeited item in the world; an estimated $200 billion industry. Based on our counterfeit opioid drug crises, we should think long and hard before considering such proposals.
Red Boiling Springs mayor Joel Rae Coe has been arrested on drug trafficking charges after a year-long joint investigation between the Macon County Sheriff’s Department the Red Boiling Springs Police Department, the Lafayette Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Authorities found 3 bags of 10 milligram hydrocodone pills, one page of 7.5 milligram hydrocodone pills, two bags of 10 milligram oxycodone pills, 154 morphine pills, 48 unidentifiable white pills, a pharmaceutical pill press and four pounds of a white powder that authorities believe is a fentanyl compound.
In this editorial published in The Hill on May 12, 2019, Brooklyn Roberts, the director of the health and human services task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, discusses the risks of drug importation:
“The safety of our prescription drugs relies on a closed system where drugs can be traced to manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and patients. Opening that system to foreign drugs would allow the potential for dangerous and potentially deadly medicines to land in the hands of the American public.”
Today at the National Press Club former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb addressed the issue of importation and specifically talked about the irony of Florida attempting to do it. Commissioner Gottlieb reminded us that the reason we have the pedigree system we’re implementing now (Track and Trace) is because criminal wholesalers in Florida in the early…
Washington, D.C. (May 9, 2019) – Shabbir Safdar, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement in response to President Trump’s comments on drug importation: “We have worked on this issue for more than 15 years and it is simply not possible to import medicines safely from a foreign country’s drug…
Grand Junction resident Andrea Thomas lost her daughter Ashley to counterfeit oxycodone in June 2018. Now, she is determined to protect others. Her new foundation, Voices for Awareness, promotes awareness about substance abuse and self-harm. On July 27, 2019, the organization will hold its first conference—free to the public—at Costa Mesa University, as well as the “Fight for Awareness,” a professional boxing event in which fighters from all over Colorado will dedicate their match to a loved one lost to substance abuse or suicide.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), a trio of Connecticut residents has been indicted on charges they were running an organization that specialized in manufacturing counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and selling them via the Internet to purchasers throughout the United States.
In this editorial published on April 30, 2019, former FBI Director Louis Freeh talks about the safety risks of drug importation: “There are hidden risks and costs associated with the scheme that have not been getting much attention which impact your health and Colorado law enforcement’s ability to keep us safe.”
The New Mexico Pharmacists Association recently sent their own letter to members of Congress expressing their concerns about allowing drug importation. PSM had the chance to speak with their executive director to learn more about the realities and misconceptions that people have about prescription drugs and drug importation…
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced the largest counterfeit pill seizure in New Jersey history this month. In addition to large quantities of other illicit drugs, between 420,000 and 620,000 counterfeit Xanax were discovered during the arrest and search of Chester Anderson, Jarrette Codd, and Ronald MacCarty for their alleged role in selling $2.3 million worth of illicit drugs via the internet.
In this editorial published on April 26, 2019, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, economist and President of American Action Forum, questions economic truths about drug importation:
“Drug reimportation has long been the fool’s gold of health policy, and the Florida bill is no different. It flunks a basic policy analysis. But most amazing, it is drafted to raise hope, but not actually help Floridians.”
We recently ran an ad in Florida about the dangers of attempting to import medicine from Canada, and the risk of getting medicine from other countries like China where much of the world’s counterfeits come from. WESH 2 News serving Orlando put the ad through their exclusive Truth Test on April 25, 2019, and the claims in…
In this piece published in the Washington Free Beacon on April 25, 2019, staff writer Charles Fain Lehman explores issues around Florida’s drug importation proposal. “Critics,” he notes, “fear that the actual realities of regulatory oversight—especially in the hand of an as-yet-unnamed private vendor—will simply be too challenging to manage responsibly.”
In this piece, which was published in The Deseret News on April 24, 2019, pharmacist and Utah State Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers raises serious concerns about importation as a strategy to lower drug prices:
“Anyone who truly understands how drugs are sold and distributed in the U.S. knows that there are very solid technical reasons that such importation is not viable. There are also serious concerns about drug safety, since the CHS cannot guarantee origin and purity on foreign-sourced drugs.”
In this piece, which was published on the ABC affiliate WJLA’s website on April 25, 2019, political analyst Boris Epshteyn explains that “this is a risky plan that will make it difficult to ensure that Floridians are receiving real and safe medicine.”
Politifact.com emailed us this week with questions about a recent ad about the dangers of attempting to import medicine from Canada. They labeled it negatively, but we noticed that they ignored certain facts while coming to their conclusion. In the interest of fairness, we’ve published below both the email from Politifact and our heavily sourced response. Judge for yourself if legislators in Florida are being naive about the risks of importation in a world with a highly evolved criminal counterfeit scheme.
Jacob Medina and his pregnant girlfriend, Diane Erika Marin, have been arrested in connection with a counterfeit pill distribution ring that is allegedly responsible for killing an Arkansas man, the KATV reports.
In this editorial, which was published in the Palm Beach Post on April 22, 2019, Michelle Flowers writes about Florida’s history of black market cancer treatments and the danger importation poses to patients. Flowers is president of the Oncology Managers of Florida.
The proposed legislation, H.R. 6554, will require that anyone who owns, purchases or imports pill press must be registered them with the U.S. Attorney General.
Tallahassee, FL (April 18, 2019) – Today the Partnership for Safe Medicines released new ads to run in several parts of Florida that highlight the dangers of Florida attempting to import medicine from Canada. Five different commissioners of the US Food and Drug Administration, appointed by both Republicans and Democrats, have stated that such proposals are dangerous to patients, will expose them to counterfeits, and are unlikely to reduce the price of medicine.
In this editorial by Terry Wilcox published in Inside Sources on April 18, 2019, Terry Wilcox, executive director of a patient advocacy organization advices federal and state representatives that allowing drug importation is not the right policy solution for America’s high prescription drug prices…
In this editorial, which was published in Colorado Politics on April 17, 2019, Don Bell, a 30-year veteran of Canadian law enforcement and border protection, warns that Canadian drug importation will open the U.S. to counterfeit medicine and exacerbate drug shortages in Canada.
Counterfeit medicines kill up to 300,000 children each year In a shocking new report published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, researchers have documented the true toll of counterfeit medicines around the world due to medicine being subtherapeutic or outright ineffective. Subtherapeutic medicine allows patients to die without sufficient treatment, but…
The editorial board of the The Wall Street Journal published this editorial on April 15, 2019. In it, they write:
“The argument that drug importation threatens the integrity of the drug supply is often dismissed because pharmaceutical lobbyists make it. But keeping the drug supply free from contaminated or counterfeit products is not easy, and the World Health Organization has warned that 1 in 10 medical products in the developing world are phony. It isn’t clear who is liable if counterfeits are found in Florida, but you can bet it won’t be the politicians.”
April 12, 2019 (Tallahassee, FL) — Importation undermines our core efforts to keep our medicine supply safe. State and federal authorities regulate every entity in the U.S. supply chain from the point of manufacture until a medicine is dispensed, and that makes counterfeits in the legitimate supply chain rare. In 2013, Congress passed the Drug…
In March 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to a website and an online pharmacy network for selling misbranded mifepristone and misoprostol
In this editorial, which was published in The Gadsden Times on April 11, 2019, former FDA-OCI director George Karavetsos points out the real dangers of drug importation:
“Even today, Americans are being hurt and even dying because of counterfeit medications being imported into this country. Adding insult to injury, while some might point to Canada as being a safe source, counterfeit medications are transshipped through Canada from other countries in remote corners of the globe.”
The News and Record has reported about a North Carolina resident, Yazid Al Fayyad Finn, who was arrested in 2018 for his part in a plot to steal a 200 pound shipment of counterfeit Xanax that was being smuggled across the Quebec-Vermont border.
WASHINGTON (April 8, 2019) – As members of Congress and leaders in the executive branch consider steps to allow wholesale importation of prescription medications, organizations representing consumers, employers, healthcare professionals, patients, and law enforcement officers, among others, are insisting that such proposals, if implemented, would endanger the health and safety of the communities throughout the country…
On March 15th, two different busts in Arizona highlighted the problems the Grand Canyon State is having with counterfeit pills.
The Lake County Crime lab processed more than 250 counterfeit oxycodone tablets, and officials with the lab told the News Herald that such counterfeit pill discoveries are on the rise.
This editorial by Dan Fucarino was published in Florida Politics on April 1, 2019. Mr Fucarino is the owner and a pharmacist at Carrollwood Compounding Center & Pharmacy.
“The monetary rewards of Canadian prescriptions are just not worth their safety risks,” he warns. “I urge Florida legislators to listen to health care experts on this issue rather than the understandable populist appeals and vote no on this dangerous legislation — and then get back to working on more productive ways to lower drug prices for Floridians. Thousands of Americans have been injured or killed by imported prescription drugs.”
Immunodeficient patients need to strictly adhere to our prescribed drug protocols because any slip could compromise our current treatment plans. Only purchasing FDA-approved medicines from licensed U.S pharmacies is an essential step in keeping ourselves as healthy as possible…
In this March 28, 2019 editorial for the La Junta Tribune-Democrat, Maine pharmacist Amelia Arnold explains her state’s experience with drug importation: “It is a concept that makes big promises in terms of quality and cost savings that it cannot, and will not, deliver on for the people of Colorado.”
Experts and leadership from The Partnership for Safe Medicines were in Tallahassee, Florida on Monday, March 25th for a Senate hearing on an ill-advised Canadian drug importation bill. During the hearing, our team heard many false or misleading statements about the proposal to take medicine out of the Canadian medicine supply and ship it to Florida. Here’s a fact check of the most egregious ones…
Simpson was accused of purchasing 10,000 counterfeit pills pressed to look like oxycodone but made with fentanyl.
These dangerous drugs get trafficked into Colorado and present a clear and present danger to unsuspecting citizens, who can die from simply ingesting what they think are safe medications. Importing foreign drugs would open a loophole, which increases the chance these dangerous counterfeits enter America unbeknownst to us all.
Concerns over how much constituents pay for their medications have caused multiple states to introduce bills that would legalize drug importation. Florida’s House Bill 19 is just one example of legislators thinking that stepping outside the security of the U.S.’s drug supply chain is a smart option for their state…
According to the Hattiesburg American, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics officials reported that there have been five overdoses and one death since the beginning of March in the area.
Counterfeits coming from Canada have been a big issue in the Sunshine State. The FDA has identified dozens of counterfeit drugs coming into Florida from foreign pharmacies.
“Several other states have attempted to legalize drug importation, but all have failed to show that it’s safe or saves money. The federal government has determined multiple times that drug importation can’t be done safely. I hope, for the sake of Floridians, that state policymakers come to that same conclusion.”
Tallahassee, Florida (March 19, 2019) — The supply and demand of dangerous counterfeit and illegally-imported medications is posing one of our country’s most serious health challenges, and illegal pill presses are directly contributing to this crisis, a new report jointly released today by The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, and The Partnership for Safe Medicines has found….
The Detroit branch of the newly launched Global Trade Task Force (GTTF) has found counterfeit medications amongst the $1 million worth of counterfeit goods seized during one week. The seizures occurred at the Detroit Metro Airport, and the Port Huron Blue Water Bridge ports of entry.
Picking the right pharmacy offers many benefits to the customer. Different pharmacies offer different services, and picking the right one can not only save you money, it can save you time…
In this editorial, published in The Missouri Times on March 11, 2019, Gregg Keller warns that “the issue at hand is not so much the safety of Canadian drugs but the dangers of the global drug trade. Often, pharmacies that claim to be “Canadian” are anything but.”
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Christopher Bantli of Calgary, Canada pleaded guilty in federal court. Bantli distributed controlled substances to customers who made their purchases online. The substances, such as fentanyl, alprazolam, or U-47700, could be pressed to look like “Pez” candies…
Since PSM started following news reports of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, stories of these pills have showed up in 46 states. With this newest story out of New Jersey, the number of states with confirmed deaths caused by fake fentanyl pills now stands at 31…
Law enforcement and medical professionals continue to warn the residents of Arizona that any pill purchased on the street most likely contains fentanyl and could kill them. From San Luis to Scottsdale to Buckeye, teenagers across the state are taking these fake pills, sometimes with tragic results…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to CanaRx, a company that acts as a broker between the foreign pharmacies and the employer-sponsored health insurance plan to provide prescription drugs to their employees. The letter states that CanaRx has been selling unapproved and misbranded drugs to U.S. citizens…
It isn’t just policymakers who believe drug importation will open the U.S. drug supply to counterfeits. In this editorial, published in the Times of Northwest Indiana on March 6, 2019, HIV-positive advocate Brandon Macsata explains that his own physician objected to ordering medicine from Canadian online pharmacies:
“It never crossed my mind that I might have been taking counterfeit medicine, or that the medicines meant to control my HIV could be compromising my immune system. So when my doctor found out, she told me to stop immediately. She warned me that online pharmacies often sell counterfeit drugs.”
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Cory Poelstra of Yankton, South Dakota received a 121-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in fentanyl. Law enforcement found over 600 fentanyl pills when they searched his home and hundreds of packages that been used to ship online purchases of controlled substances to him…
A South Carolina resident, who was the leader of a counterfeit drug manufacturing and distribution ring, recently was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Eric Hughes and his co-conspirators used rental properties as clandestine drug labs to produce 500,000 fake pills each months, which were distributed locally as well as to online customers…
The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) have issued a joint statement in opposition to U.S. federal legislation authorizing personal and commercial importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
“While we recognize the desire to address affordability issues in the U.S.,” they write, “we strongly oppose the importation of prescription drugs from Canada because of the risks these policies pose to patient safety and
continuity of care.”
Three individuals and four companies have pending plea agreements in federal court on charges related to the illegal importation and sale of $11 million worth of herbal remedies that contained an undisclosed active pharmaceutical ingredient. Over several years, two of the individuals involved manufactured millions of pills…
The U.S. Department of Justice handed down a superseding indictment in federal court charging five people for their roles in the counterfeit fentanyl pill death of a 32-year-old mother in Colorado in June 2018…
Products containing sibutramine pose a threat to consumers because sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias or stroke. Health risks of ingesting phenolphthalein could include potentially serious gastrointestinal disturbances, irregular heartbeat, and cancer with long-term use. These products may also interact in life threatening ways with other medications a consumer may be taking.
Counterfeit Iclusig (ponatinib), a cancer drug used to treat chronic myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was first found by a Swiss wholesaler. The World Health Organization is warning North American and European cancer patients after two batches of a fake cancer medication were found in three different countries and also sold on the internet…
[UPDATE: This statement has been updated to include all three pieces of pending legislation in Florida. March 5, 2019] Washington, D.C. (March 5, 2019) – Shabbir Safdar, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, released the following statement today in response to three separate proposals from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and and the state…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against an Akron, Ohio resident after a search of his home turned up items “consistent with a large-scale pill press operation.” Donyea Nelson received a nine-count indictment in federal court, which included charges for possession of fentanyl, possession of a pill press, and possession of die molds…
Some politicians have suggested that allowing the importation of prescription drugs from Canada would be a safe and effective way to lower the cost of medications for Americans, but this idea overlooks a very important fact: the Canadian drug supply chain is not built to support Canada’s population and the United States’…
Federal charges announced against two New Jersey residents for their roles in a conspiracy to market and distribute misbranded and unapproved new drugs. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a charge of conspiring to distribute and cause the receipt and delivery of misbranded new drugs against both Keith Kovaleski of South Amboy and Inew Maltez of Sayreville…
As of January 2019, counterfeit, fentanyl-laced prescription pills have been reported in 46 states—every state except Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas and Nebraska. The number of states reporting associated deaths has risen 71 percent, from 17 in October 2016 to 29 in December 2018.
In Capitol Hill briefings sponsored by the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) on January 31, former and current law enforcement leaders sounded a warning over the increased flow of counterfeit drugs and lethal fentanyl into the United States, noting that international drug traffickers and crime syndicates see our nation as a lucrative market.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced prison sentences for three members of a large-scale counterfeit fentanyl pill manufacturing and distribution ring based in Elmira, New York. The ringleader, Robert Ian Thatcher, received a 23-year prison sentence. Edward Barrett and Dusty Pemberton, both street level dealers, will spend seven and one-half and five and one-half years in prison respectively…
Two sheriffs in Montana issued public warnings after multiple people died in January because of counterfeit oxycodone pills made with fentanyl. This makes Montana the 30th state in which PSM has documented deaths caused by fake fentanyl pills
The Shasta County District Attorney’s Office in California filed eight felony counts against a local woman who allegedly lied about being a licensed nurse and injected her unsuspecting clients with liquid silicone and illegally-sourced Botox…
2019 has already been a busy year for fentanyl cases in Arizona. Thousands of counterfeit fentanyl pills have been seized, a woman selling pills out of a convenience store has been charged, a 15-year-old suffered a non-fatal overdose at school from what is thought to have been a counterfeit pill, and Customs and Border Protection seized 254 founds of fentanyl hidden in a shipment of cucumbers at the port of entry at Nogales…
In a statement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. discussed the agency’s continuing efforts to combat the spread of illicit opioids and to ensure the security of America’s drug supply chain. Included in their recent efforts, Commissioner Gottlieb noted that the agency has stepped up enforcement and interdiction work at International Mail Facilities and shut down websites illegally selling potentially dangerous, unapproved, and misbranded versions of opioid medications to U.S. citizens…
Thursday, January 17th, 2019 was a busy day for emergency services in Seattle, Washington due to seven overdoses. Public Health – Seattle & King County issued a public warning about a potentially bad batch of drugs laced with fentanyl – both illicit and counterfeit pills – having caused the overdoses…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a 26-month prison sentence for Tzvi Lexier, a principal at TC Medical Group. After fighting extradition from Canada, Lexier pleaded guilty in federal court for his role that saw over $18 million in misbranded and counterfeit drugs smuggled into the U.S. and sold to doctors’ offices around the country…
On Thursday, January 31, 2018, the Partnership for Safe Medicines held two briefings in Washington, D.C. to inform members of Congress and their staff about the dangers posed to Americans by counterfeit medicines. The events each had three panels and looked at how fake medicines have affected individuals and law enforcement, and also at the roles played by international bad actors and drug cartels…
Traveling to foreign countries for a medical procedure is nothing new, but a dozen Americans who recently traveled to Tijuana, Mexico ended up bringing home something they never dreamed of: a potentially deadly strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria…
The 9th Judicial District Drug Task Force received an award recently at the annual meeting of the Tennessee Narcotic Officers Association. Among their many accomplishments this year, this task force was involved in seizing 10,000 Xanax pills shipped from Canada to a Kingston couple…
In this February 4th, 2019 editorial for Colorado Politics, Denver resident Ali Schroer warns, “I experienced firsthand the dangers of counterfeit, imported drugs, and was critically ill for months as we sought to uncover the source of my illness.”
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, victims of counterfeit medicines and their families, local law enforcement, former DEA agents, and other experts in the fight against counterfeit medicines met for a discussion about the widespread impact fake drugs are having on communities and on the enormous burden the problem places on regulators who are responsible for our drug safety.
Learn more and watch the briefing here.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh has released an addendum to his 2017 Report on the Potential Impact of Drug Importation Proposals on U.S. Law Enforcement, concluding:
…the government has not done enough to evaluate and improve the capacity of law enforcement to deal with a new pipeline of drugs into the U.S. drug supply, all while . . . more illegal drugs are being shipped to the United States. Passing any drug importation scheme would erase the little progress we have made and set law enforcement further back on their heels.
In this editorial, which first appeared in The Washington Times on January 29, 2019, former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh revisits the problem drug importation poses to law enforcement and regulatory systems already overburdened by the opioid crisis.
In this January 30, 2019 editorial, which was published in the National Association of Manufacturer’s Shopfloor blog, Vice President of Infrastructure Robyn Boerstling warns that even though legislators have good intentions, importation could “result in disastrous outcomes.”
Police Arrest Bridgewater, Massachusetts Man A Second Time For Selling Fake Pills Made with Fentanyl
For the second time in less than a year, police arrested John Bagley of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He allegedly sold counterfeit pills made with fentanyl both times…
A case brought against an Oregon resident by the U.S. Department of Justice reached its conclusion. Jared Gillespie will spend 97 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to five counts. He purchased tens of thousands of counterfeit oxycodone pills online to sell in his home state…
While arresting a Grand Junction, Colorado woman on an outstanding warrant, a police K-9 indicated the presence of narcotics in her vehicle. Inside Marie Matos’s car, police discovered two bags filled with hundreds of pills whose markings indicate that they should be oxycodone. However, “based on training, experience and knowledge of this case these are fentanyl pills”…
In a January 23, 2019 editorial published in The Hill Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner and the president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, explains why the safety risks of importation far outweigh any savings.
Police in Memphis, Tennessee arrested Michael Abraham after receiving a tip that he was about to receive a shipment of counterfeit pills. After the package was delivered, police executed a search warrant on the residence and seized over 13,000 counterfeit pills…
The impurity detected in the active ingredient for Losartan is N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), which is a substance that occurs naturally in certain foods, drinking water, air pollution, and industrial processes, and has been classified as a probable human carcinogen as per international Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classification. Torrent is only recalling lots of losartan containing products that contain Nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) above the acceptable daily intake levels released by the FDA.
What started out as a traffic stop in southern California ended up with the arrest of two men and the seizure of a package that contained thousands of counterfeit pills that tested positive for fentanyl. All those pills plus other illicit narcotics were destined for an address in Alaska…
Coroners and medical examiners do more than just rule on the cause and manner of death. They also photograph scenes, collect physical evidence with law enforcement, transport the bodies for autopsies, and notify the next of kin. With the increased workload due to the opioid crisis, some of these professionals and their budgets are being pushed to the edge…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that an Alabama resident received a prison sentence of over 10 years after pleading guilty to possession, distribution and conspiracy to distribute hundreds of fake pills made with fentanyl and over 80,000 counterfeit Xanax pill…