Cathedral City, CA, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 
California Behavioral Health has expressed concerns about a recent case of fentanyl being found in counterfeit Adderall purchased online.
If you buy drugs from your local pharmacy or receive a prescription, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’re getting a substance that has gone through many meticulous tests and was ultimately found to be beneficial and safe for your unique condition and needs. However, if you buy drugs online or from unlicensed suppliers, there’s no guarantee that of safety at all. This means that your drugs could have dangerous side effects or be a different substance entirely to what you believe it is.
Despite warnings in the past from health regulators, consumers unfortunately still risk purchasing drugs online. This is a worrying problem in the health industry, with the number of counterfeit pills seized by the DEA increasing by nearly 430% since 2019.
Just recently, the DEA-licensed laboratory called Drugs Data reported an occurrence of Fentanyl in counterfeit Adderall that was sourced online from India. This report is very concerning because fentanyl can pose a serious threat to those who consume it – even small amounts can be fatal.
What is fentanyl?
The Better Addiction Care website has lots of useful information about fentanyl and the dangers of purchasing drugs online.
Ultimately, fentanyl is an extremely potent and potentially life-threatening synthetic opioid drug that is not easily detected. The substance is about 50-100 times stronger than morphine, and is often made in unregulated labs and cut with heroin, cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, ketamine and pills from nonmedical sources. Just a small amount of fentanyl can cause an overdose, coma, and death, and sadly it’s estimated that around 40% of counterfeit pills cut with fentanyl contain a potentially fatal dose. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl were responsible for over 36,000 overdose deaths in 2019 in the United States, and the risk of an accidental overdose is apparent when you consider the fact that not many users aren’t even aware that their drugs are cut with fentanyl.
Testing for fentanyl
The City of New York has a guide on fentanyl (https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/basas/fentanyl-test-strips-brochure.pdf) which states that the safest way to know if your drugs are cut with fentanyl is to test your drugs using a fentanyl test strip. These test strips are an affordable, easy way to detect the presence of even tiny amounts of fentanyl.
This guide also helpfully states the three ways to use a fentanyl test strip, which are:
- Dissolving your drugs in water and use the strip (this is the most accurate way to test for fentanyl)
- Crushing your drugs on a clean surface, putting the powder in the bag to shake it, then emptying it and pushing the powder aside. Then, you have to dissolve the residue left in the bag into water and test that mixture
- Putting 10mg of your drug into a clean, dry container before adding water to the container then using the test strip
Even if it’s not cut with fentanyl, Adderall – like most drugs – still comes with some risks and side effects (ranging from mild symptoms such as restlessness and confusion to more serious symptoms like seizures and heart failure). This is why it’s vital that you stick to your doctor’s recommendations and always follow their instructions when using prescribed stimulants and other pills rather than buying them online.
More information
California Behavioral Health is an organization offering empowering addiction treatment in Palm Springs.
For more information, please visit the website at https://cabehavioral.com/.
