Police Warn Of Tylenol-Disguised Fentanyl And Cocaine Pills
The Tylenol you have on hand may not be your trusted pain reliever as you believe it to be. Just recently, the Lorain Police Department in Lorain, Ohio issued a warning regarding cocaine and fentanyl pills that are disguised as Tylenol. That is why it is very important that you only get your Tylenol from trusted drugstores.
On their Facebook page, the Lorain Police Department revealed a shocking discovery that they “recently seized pills, later determined to be made of Fentanyl and cocaine, pressed to look like over-the-counter medication.”
In one case, the pills were made to really look like Tylenol. There was even an attempt to have the word “Tylenol” into the pills. In another case, the drugs were made to look like Metoprolol, a medication used to treat high blood pressure.
From the comparison picture that is now going viral online, the fake Tylenol and the real one are difficult to differentiate. But with closer inspection, you will realize that one is definitely different from the other.
The authorities are concerned, however, that if one does not carefully examine the pill or if the pill was included within a bottle that was also labeled as containing Tylenol, it may be easy to think that the pill actually contains Tylenol.
In an interview with Fox 8, Lt. Jacob Morris from the Lorain Police Department said that they have already seized a total of 28 pills that were made to look like the prescription medication. It was proven to be a fake one when a lab determined that they were actually Fentanyl and cocaine.
He said, “The concerning things is that everything about these pills did in fact look to be genuine and certainly at first glance, especially if you were to encounter them within a pill bottle that were marked with the blood pressure medication or as Tylenol.”
The police are concerned that these pills are being used to smuggle illegal drugs. Morris added, “Clearly, in that this has been seized in the process of two different investigations and with two different substances, two different narcotics, this may be a trend that is somewhat regular or somewhat being used right now to traffic drugs.”
While Morris is sure that these tablets are meant to fool the police, he believes they are also meant to deceive a wider audience than simply the police. These pills could, for example, be used to fool parents and teachers into thinking they are giving the right medication for young children.
Morris explained, “The concern for our public is that someone could, in fact, encounter one of these pills and assume, probably reasonably so, that they’re dealing with an over-the-counter medication and upon handling it or ingesting it, become seriously ill or even perish.”
On their Facebook post, the Lorain Police Department advised:
“…always be cautious when handling medication, even if it appears to be over-the-counter medication.”
When it comes to the medications that we are taking, it is very important that we only source them from our trusted pharmacies or drugstores. These days, illegal drugs are being made to look like the ones that can be bought from drugstores, may it be prescription-only or over-the-counter. Not only for easier conveyance from one place to the other but also for faster distribution to the general population.
