Fentanyl-tainted pills now found in Mexican pharmacies from coast to coast | Hacker News Reader

Fentanyl-tainted pills now found in Mexican pharmacies from coast to coast

latimes.com

16 pointsmirthlessend13 comments

"Tested positive for" is a vague term - were they in effectively dangerous concentrations (fentanyl) or just trace quantities because of contamination of the molds in the small scale operation in a warehouse somewhere ?

Trace quantities of fentanyl might be dangerous concentrations.

Did a bit of digging. Studies[0] I could find about the prevalence of tainted medications in Mexico didn't look at the concentration of contaminants, but articles like the original one linked above heavily imply that it's a full (or nearly full) replacement of the advertised drug, i.e. fentanyl or heroin standing in for percocet or oxy (which to me would imply intentionality & large enough doses that it's not immediately obvious the pills are fake).

If I'm allowed to equivocate with American data... America is also facing fake painkiller (oxy, percocet, xanax) pills illegally tainted with fentanyl, which the DEA claims is from Mexico[1]. The DEA claims that 2mg of fentanyl is a potentially-lethal dose, and 42% of illicit pills they tested for fentanyl contained >=2mg[2].

The "illicit pills" from that stat could be anything, not just fake pharmaceuticals. But the U.S. Embassy has an active warning that Mexican fake pharmaceuticals may contain "deadly doses" of fentanyl[3] - and more interestingly, it and all the news stories note that fent-laced pills are mostly in tourist areas, making it unlikely that it's accidental mold contaminations (which I assume would affect non-tourist areas as well).

TLDR: Mexican contaminant concentrations aren't easily-found info, but it doesn't seem small/accidental

[0] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.27.23285123v... [1] https://www.dea.gov/alert/dea-laboratory-testing-reveals-6-o... [3] https://mx.usembassy.gov/health-alert-counterfeit-pharmaceut... [2] https://www.dea.gov/resources/facts-about-fentanyl

Those are for pills that are sourced from drug dealers though. Why would legitimate Mexican pharmacies need to sell laced pills?

Fentanyl production is probably way cheaper than getting on-brand Percocet. On-brand pain reliever revenues (sold to tourists with money) + fentanyl production prices = increased profit.

Well, I have never been prescribed opioids in Mexico, so I can't speak specifically to that. I can say that the way pharmacies are setup in Mexico would not lend itself well to such a system. The title makes it sound like all prescription drugs at Mexican pharmacies carry a risk of having fentanyl in them, which I find really hard to believe.

There are several nationwide chains. One of which is called Farmacia Del Ahorro. A conspiracy on that scale to give out fake pills would be hard to pull off, as they source these medications on a very large scale.

The only places I could see something like this maybe working are places like Cancun, where it's so tourism focused many business straight up accept USD as currency. And the tourists don't realize they aren't going to a real pharmacy but one setup specifically to scam them.

Fentanyl also has a tendency to kill people. No legitimate pharmacy would risk that to improve their profit margins. One death would start a panic and kill their business.

From the original article linked:

"[The counterfeit drug issue is] happening in tourist hot spots across the country... In most of those locations, the pills that tested positive came from independent pharmacies, where workers sold them over the counter, one tablet at a time. But in Puerto Vallarta, counterfeits were available even at one regional pharmacy chain..."

Single-pill purchases are extraordinarily sketchy, but the article notes that some of the issue is fake bottles that look like sealed on-brand products.

Pretty sure the fentanyl pills are aimed almost entirely at tourists (recreational tourists, but also medical tourists hoping to get their prescriptions cheaper than in the US).

Seems like some pharmacies are totally willing to risk deaths (enough for a US Embassy warning) for extra profit.

Okay, that tracks. My big question was “is this independent or chains” and it’s sort of answered by them saying one location of a regional chain was doing it. I’d bet that regional chain they mention it’s just that location and the employees are running the scheme.

And it sounds like they’re selling to people seeking recreational drugs, specifically opiates. So test your pills like you would if you were buying them off the street.

Places like Cancun and Puerto Vallarta and Playa Del Carmen are pretty awful. I’d recommend avoiding them anyways.

I mean, people do still get on-brand Xanax / Percocet / whatever for non-recreational reasons. Painkillers still kill pain. But otherwise, hard agree. If you're going to do medical tourism, avoiding sketchy independent pharmacies aimed at tourists is probably a solid first step.

Yeah but the article describes buying individual pills. That’s not a thing in real pharmacies. It really sounds like they’re just buying from drug dealers that have setup storefronts and I don’t think the overall conclusion of the article is justified by their findings.

Out of curiosity, I acquired a box of Mexican Xanax today. Now I just need to figure out how to test them.

It was under the name Tafil and supposedly manufactured by Pfizer.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1119021696968556566/1...

I agree fentanyl is awful. I have a friend in a hospital because of it.

And, when there is mass hysteria, there is often manipulation. This pharma tourism in Mexico is probably really hurting American pharmaceutical companies. If I were a pharma CEO, I would really love to see stories like this.

I live in Mexico and get prescriptions at Mexican pharmacies. This really hasn’t seemed like a problem at all.

I’m not even sure if most of the medications are manufactured here. There was a supply chain shortage for Clonazepam where it was hard to find for a while and when it came back the provider was different.

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