Fake Oxycontin Pills Widespread and Potentially Deadly: Report

(HealthDay News) The rate at which young Americans are ending up in hospital ICUs after using fake Oxycontin pills spiked with fentanyl is soaring, especially in the U.S. West, a new report warns.

Medical toxicology data from one unnamed hospital in the western U.S. found the number of cases involving overdoses involving fake "M-30" Oxycontin pills rose from just three in 2017 to 209 during 2022, according to a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most patients (81%) required hospital care and more than two-thirds of those patients spent time in the ICU. Two patients died while hospitalized, the report found.

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