Rainbow Fentanyl Scourge Targets “Children and Young Adults,” DEA Warns

Colorful fentanyl pressed into pills or in chalky form — called rainbow fentanyl — has been found in 18 states, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) press release warns, and drug dealers are hooking “kids and young adults” at an early age.

It was only a matter of time before fentanyl and other deadly drugs were marketed as designer drugs, as brightly branded pills, and in other forms.

“Rainbow Fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes — is a deliberate attempt by drug dealers to promote addiction among children and young adults,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “The men and women of the DEA are working tirelessly to stop the Rainbow Fentanyl trade and take down the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for most of the fentanyl trafficked in the United States.”

While even the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) admits that there has never been a fatal overdose from cannabis alone, fentanyl is a different story altogether as it has the ability to hold your breath.

There is no other way to view what is happening in the United States with opioids as anything other than an epidemic. In fact, according to data from NIDA, deaths using synthetic opioids other than methadone – mainly fentanyl – continued on their steady death march, with 56,516 overdose deaths reported in 2020.

This number, 56,526 deaths, is in the range of total US military casualties during the Vietnam War recorded in the Defense Casualty Analysis System. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded a total of 107,622 drug overdoses in 2021 and states that the majority, or 66%, of these deaths were related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. (The CDC also says a cannabis overdose is “unlikely.”)

However, an overdose from accidentally ingesting a little too much fentanyl is likely. The DEA’s announcement reminds us that fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. In other words, 2 mg of fentanyl, which is equivalent to 10-15 grains of table salt, can kill you. Obviously, street drugs don’t provide lab test results – and the margin of error is only 2 mg.

Multnomah County Sheriff / Courtesy Drug Enforcement Administration

However, the opioid epidemic is a multifaceted problem. On the other side of the opioid epidemic, there are also people in severe pain who complain about being denied opioids and being mislabeled as addicts.

The DEA announcement blames cartels for the rise of rainbow fentanyl, explaining that the fentanyl available in the United States is primarily supplied by two criminal drug networks: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Uttam Dhillon, former Acting Administrator of the DEA, told Yahoo! News on September 1st that the Sinaloa cartel has ramped up pill production and that DEA agents are now seizing millions of fentanyl pills in places like Los Angeles.

“Even just seeing a lab in Mexico pressing pills was something unique to see. And that was just a few years ago,” Dhillon told Yahoo! News. “Now we see that in Los Angeles, for example, literally a million pills were confiscated just a few months ago. So the growth has been tremendous.”

The DEA strikes back with educational campaigns and FAQ sheets.

Launched in September 2021, the One Pill Can Kill public education campaign was launched by the DEA with the goal of educating Americans about the dangers of counterfeit pills, which can be disguised as a less dangerous pill or otherwise. The DEA also provides additional resources for parents, which can be found on the DEA’s Fentanyl Awareness page.