"Pharmacies" in Mexico are selling counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl. Photo: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.
Mexican authorities have shuttered another batch of pharmacies, this time in the coastal town of Ensenada, after seizing medicines that could be contaminated with fentanyl.Mexican marines as well as the nation’s sanitation agency (known by the acronym COFEPRIS) inspected 53 pharmacies in the city and ultimately shut down 31 of them for the “irregular sale" of medicines “probably contaminated with fentanyl, which represents a significant threat to public health.”It’s the latest in a bunch of pharmacy and pill sales-point closures by the Mexican government following revelations in VICE News and other media publications in the last year that establishments are selling prescription meds labeled as Oxys, Adderall and Xanax, mostly to foreign tourists and without prescriptions, that contain fentanyl and are likely produced by the country’s cartels.
We visited 30 pharmacies around Mexico’s coasts for the purposes of that report, in resorts which are popular with Western tourists—including American expats, many of them retirees, living in Mexico—looking to buy cheap prescription drugs, no questions asked. A number of cases in which pills bought by Americans in Mexico and taken home have caused fatal overdoses have been documented in the U.S., and the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning about the dangers of those pills in March. Those who have spoken out about the problem in the U.S, including Sandra Bagwell, whose son Ryan died from fentanyl poisoning in Texas after buying what he thought was a Percocet pill in a Mexican pharmacy across the border, believe it to be much more widespread than it might appear. “It’s not safe to buy anything off the streets.” Bagwell told ValleCentral.com.After largely ignoring the problem, the Mexican government has begun taking action in recent months via “Operation Albatross.” This week’s closures of pharmacies in Ensenada follow other similar actions in different parts of the country, including Tulum, Cancun and Playa del Carmen in recent months.
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The searches took place after citizen reports of such sales, according to a release by the Mexican government, and more than 4,600 bottles of meds were seized.. A VICE News investigation in June with the Bunk Police, a drug testing company, found that pharmacies around the country are selling pills laced with highly addictive meth as well as fentanyl. The adulterated nature of the pills as well as their form and fake English-language packaging suggests that they’re produced and distributed by Mexico’s powerful drug cartels and not legitimate pharmaceutical companies, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and experts consulted for the report.Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.
We visited 30 pharmacies around Mexico’s coasts for the purposes of that report, in resorts which are popular with Western tourists—including American expats, many of them retirees, living in Mexico—looking to buy cheap prescription drugs, no questions asked. A number of cases in which pills bought by Americans in Mexico and taken home have caused fatal overdoses have been documented in the U.S., and the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning about the dangers of those pills in March. Those who have spoken out about the problem in the U.S, including Sandra Bagwell, whose son Ryan died from fentanyl poisoning in Texas after buying what he thought was a Percocet pill in a Mexican pharmacy across the border, believe it to be much more widespread than it might appear. “It’s not safe to buy anything off the streets.” Bagwell told ValleCentral.com.After largely ignoring the problem, the Mexican government has begun taking action in recent months via “Operation Albatross.” This week’s closures of pharmacies in Ensenada follow other similar actions in different parts of the country, including Tulum, Cancun and Playa del Carmen in recent months.