close

Rainbow fentanyl targets younger generation of Americans

3 min read
article image -

Brightly colored pills and powders, and colorful blocks resembling sidewalk chalk, have been seized in 18 states including West Virginia, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced earlier this week.

The pills, powders and blocks are rainbow fentanyl, colorful opioids that look more like candy than a drug. The latest form of fentanyl is being used to target a younger generation of Americans.

“The color change from, I believe fentanyl is always white or somewhat yellow, to an appealing rainbow – they’re playing to a younger crowd,” said Greene County District Attorney David Russo. “I think it is a tactic by the drug dealers to pull our children into the drug community, and I’ll do everything that I can to stop that from happening.”

So far, no rainbow fentanyl has been reported in Southwestern Pennsylvania. But within the last month, the DEA has seized large shipments of the synthetic opioid in states from California to Arizona and Washington, D.C.

“Rainbow fentanyl … is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” DEA administrator Anne Milgram said in a news release. “The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States.”

Last week, U.S. attorney William Ihlenfeld and officials from the Mon Metro Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force announced a large shipment of rainbow fentanyl had been seized in Morgantown, W.Va., in mid-August.

Ihlenfeld told media that officials believe the pills, stamped with M/30 like pharmaceutical oxycodone, arrived in Morgantown from Mexico, by way of California state.

“This is a direct attempt to our children to bring the drug movement to the youth, and my administration and my county detectives are highly monitoring this. We are fully monitoring this situation to make sure it does not make its way into Greene County and Pennsylvania,” Russo said. “I will not let it impact our schools.”

Russo wants to keep rainbow fentanyl out of local communities, as well. Over the last decade, fentanyl use has increased drastically nationwide.

In 2021, 107,622 Americans died of overdose. Fentanyl was responsible for 66% of those deaths, according to the DEA.

In Washington County alone, fentanyl was responsible for 82% of all overdose deaths in 2021, according to the most recent coroner’s report. The report said 106 drug-related deaths were recorded in Washington County in 2021, the second-highest number of overdoses on record.

Fentanyl is 50 times more deadly than heroin, according to the DEA, which reports that drug poisonings are the leading killer of Americans ages 18 to 45.

“Anybody that has some type of colored drug that is trying to appeal to the children will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Russo said.

The Washington County district attorney’s office did not return a call for comment by press time Wednesday.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today