State officials have warned people of fake pills that were linked to one death.
Mark Gwyn, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said police confiscated 300 pills that looked like Percocet but tested positive for Fentanyl.
Gwyn said, “We are seeing that drugs are being made in clandestine labs that contain Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a pain killer that is 50 times more potent than heroin and can be deadly.”
Gwyn said they have also used undercover officers to try and buy up these pills off the streets.
Gwyn said, “Some of these drugs looks so similar to actual Percocet that even drugs experts can’t tell if they’re real without performing chemical tests on them.”
In 2014 1,263 people died from overdoses in Tennessee. According to commissioners, that is more than the amount of people who died in vehicle accidents.
Commissioner Bill Gibbons said Governor Haslam's new public safety plan includes tougher sentences for drug traffickers.
Gibbons said, “Now we have a new twist to this that is very disturbing. This problem of fake pills and as director Gwyn pointed out, this is a deadly twist. It is very very serious.”
Dennis Young, the Chief of Police in Winchester, TN said he first thought the pills were laced with heroin.
Young said, “We started receiving some intelligence probably two months ago that there was some fake pills showing up that was mixed with heroin. My detectives were hearing about it on the streets... We found a young man 24 years old—dead.
His mother is a nurse. A fine lady. Clasped in his hand was a cell phone bag of 31 and a half of these pills that we’re talking about today. Supposedly he took half of a pill labeled Percocet.”
