![]() Jack Reed (D-R.I.) added language to a Senate appropriations proposal that would force the State Department to take further action, including revealing key information about deaths from pills containing fentanyl purchased from Mexican pharmacies.ONE // TWO // THREE // FOUR // FIVE // SIX // SEVEN // EIGHT // NINE // TEN // ELEVEN “The safest course of action is to avoid using pills from any sources besides those that come from an FDA-licensed pharmacy or are prescribed by your healthcare provider,” the county health department said in a news release at the time. In June, Los Angeles County health officials cited the reporting in their own advisory. State Department issued a travel advisory in March warning American tourists about the dangers of buying medications from drugstores in Mexico. In the months since the Times’ investigation began, authorities in the U.S. Senate appropriations proposal could force the State Department to release data about overdoses linked to fentanyl-tainted pills sold by Mexican pharmacies. Senate proposal could force action on counterfeit pills in Mexican pharmaciesĪ U.S. The Times also identified at least half a dozen Americans who overdosed or died after taking pills purchased from pharmacies in cities across Mexico. More than a third of the purported painkillers were actually fentanyl, and 80% of the Adderall samples contained either methamphetamine or, in one case, MDMA, a stimulant commonly known as ecstasy. Of the 55 pills Times reporters purchased nationwide, more than half were fake. In June, The Times published a broader investigation documenting the problem across the country - including in Tulum and Playa del Carmen, two of the three cities in the state of Quintana Roo that authorities later targeted in the first Operation Albatross. ![]() The UCLA team recorded its findings around the same time. In each city, some of the medications sold as either oxycodone or Adderall tested positive for fentanyl or methamphetamine. In early 2023, Times reporters purchased and tested pills from pharmacies in Tijuana, San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. Though tainted pills have been a known problem on the black market for some time, until recently many drug experts generally believed that pills sold in brick-and-mortar stores were at least what the labels said they were. “Stopping pharmacies from selling counterfeit pills that may contain fentanyl will likely save lives.”ĭrugstores in Mexico have long sold an array of medications over the counter, including many that would require prescriptions in the U.S. ![]() “This is an encouraging step,” she said Saturday. As with the earlier raids in the Yucatán Peninsula, officials cited “citizen complaints” as the impetus for the operation.Īfter the June crackdown in Los Cabos, a delegate of the attorney general’s office in Baja California Sur told The Times the four-day series of raids was spurred by local news reports, which were largely based on the Times reporting and work by a team of UCLA researchers.Ĭhelsea Shover, one of the researchers who published a study documenting the problem of counterfeit pills in Mexico this year, welcomed news of the raid. The news releases by the navy and health officials Friday did not explain how authorities selected the pharmacies they targeted. Los Angeles health officials caution travelers against purchasing prescriptions over-the-counter in Mexico. public health officials warn about fentanyl-tainted pills in Mexican drug stores ![]()
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