U.S. law enforcement seizes over 115 mln pills containing illicit fentanyl in 2023

LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. law enforcement seized over 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl in 2023, according to a new study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Law enforcement seizures of illicit fentanyl increased dramatically in number and size in the country between 2017 and 2023, especially in pill form, the NIH said on Monday.

The number of individual pills containing fentanyl seized by law enforcement was 2,300 times greater in 2023 compared to 2017, with 115,562,603 pills seized in 2023 compared to 49,657 in 2017, according to the NIH.

The proportion of fentanyl pill seizures to the total number of fentanyl seizures more than quadrupled, with pills representing 49 percent of illicit fentanyl seizures in 2023 compared to 10 percent in 2017.

The study also found a significant increase in the number and weight of fentanyl-containing powder seizures during this time.

"Fentanyl has continued to infiltrate the drug supply in communities across the United States and it is a very dangerous time to use drugs, even just occasionally," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow.

"Illicit pills are made to look identical to real prescription pills, but can actually contain fentanyl. It is urgently important that people know that any pills given to someone by a friend, purchased on social media, or received from any source other than a pharmacy could be potentially deadly - even after a single ingestion," Volkow said.