Two milligrams of fentanyl — the equivalent of about 11 grains of salt — can kill a person, Brian McNeal, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Detroit Division, told News staff writer Steve Schulwitz for a recent story.

And about seven out of every 10 counterfeit prescription pills on the market today contain that amount or more of the lethal drug.

McNeal visited Alpena this week to talk about the dangers of counterfeit prescription drugs — typically fake OxyContin, Percocet, Adderall, Xanax, and hydrocodone — currently flooding the streets from China and Mexico. The pills often are sold online to unsuspecting patients who think they’re taking prescriptions and end up in the morgue, McNeal told Schulwitz.

Nearly 108,000 people died of a drug overdose in 2022, the most recent year data’s available, compared to fewer than 92,000 deaths in 2021 and fewer than 20,000 in 1999.

McNeal said the only safe way to obtain prescription drugs is through a doctor and pharmacist, urging the public to avoid shopping discount drugs online or buying pills from friends, family, or especially strangers.

“It’s worse odds than playing Russian roulette and they look just like the prescription that we get from our doctors and pharmacist,” McNeal told Schulwitz. “They sell them online. They are selling them on the street. The user thinks they are taking something else and the user cannot tell the difference by simply looking at them.”

We join McNeal in urging every Northeast Michigander to be smart and be safe when obtaining prescription drugs, especially narcotic painkillers.

Visit a trusted doctor.

Use a trusted pharmacist.

And take your pills only as directed.

It’s a dangerous world out there, Northeast Michigan.

Stay safe.

— The Alpena News