By MAXINE BERNSTEIN

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Portland police are warning people about counterfeit prescription drugs circulating in the area that may have deadly amounts of fentanyl and other potent opioids.



It's a scourge causing accidental overdose deaths locally and across Oregon, said police spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley.



For instance, Portland officers have investigated fake tablets that have contained fentanyl, heroin, the painkiller tramadol and the tranquilizer alprazolam, he said.



Fentanyl is similar to morphine but "crosses the blood-brain barrier faster than more commonly encountered opioids," Burley said in a news release.



Police released a series of photos to show what the fake pills illegally sold in Portland look like.

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Photo provided by Portland Police Bureau/Oregon State Crime Lab



Nationally, among the more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths estimated last year, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to the painkiller fentanyl and synthetic opioids with over 20,000 deaths.

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Photo of counterfeit pills provided by Portland Police Bureau/Oregon State Crime Lab ("MTC" means manufactured to contain)



In Oregon, 80 people have died in accidental overdoses from synthetic opioids since 2014, but the deaths have accelerated at an alarming rate in the last year, said Dr. Karen Gunson, state medical examiner.



Of the 80 deaths, 75 have occurred since 2016, she said.

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Photo of counterfeit pills provided by Portland Police Bureau/Oregon State Crime Lab ("MTC" means manufactured to contain)





Fentanyl is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent.



"A lot of these people are buying it on the street or the Internet," Gunson said. "They think they're buying oxycodone or Xanax pills but they don't know what they're getting."

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Photo provided by Portland Police Bureau/Oregon State Crime Lab ("MTC" means manufactured to contain)





According to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control, illicit fentanyl led to one death in 2014, in Deschutes County. That rose to seven in 2016, with one each in Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Deschutes, Jackson, Lane and Multnomah counties.

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