Fentanyl-laced pill seizures have increased nearly 50-fold since 2018, study finds

The number of fentanyl-laced pills seized by law enforcement has increased nearly 50-fold between 2018 and 2021, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The rise in seizures comes amid a period of record-high overdose deaths, researchers said. 

"An increase in illicit pills containing fentanyl points to a new and increasingly dangerous period in the United States," director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Nora D. Volkow said in a statement Thursday.

A team of scientists compared data from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program for the first quarter of 2018 and the last quarter of December 2021. Researchers found that the number of seizures of pills containing fentanyl increased from 68 to 635. The total number of individual pills containing fentanyl seized by law enforcement rose from 42,202 to 2,089,186 and seizures of powder containing fentanyl grew from 424 to 1,539.