Rainbow Fentanyl Could Be Poised for Halloween Spike After Lego Box Seizure

Rainbow fentanyl, the multicolored form of the potent opioid fentanyl, has been circulating the U.S., including 15,000 of the pills that were being smuggled inside a Lego box.

With Halloween approaching on October 31, there is concern that the brightly colored pills may be being targeted at kids, especially in the wake of the drugs being smuggled in a toy box.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are the most-common drugs involved in overdose deaths in the U.S., with 59 percent of opioid-related fatalities involving fentanyl in 2017.

Only a small amount of fentanyl is needed to overdose and possibly die. More than 80 percent of all overdose deaths in New York City are caused by fentanyl, according to CNN.

According to a press release from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in August, 18 states have seen seizures of the rainbow drugs.

"The reports from the field suggest that it is fentanyl is being dyed with food coloring, which many believe are being used to support branding or perhaps facilitate smoking (versus injecting) by enabling the fentanyl to be compressed together to be smoked," Kelly E. Dunn, a researcher at Maryland Opioid Research (MOR), told Newsweek.

Rainbow fentanyl is regular fentanyl in different colored pills, meaning that it has the same effects on the body as its plainly colored counterparts.

Often prescribed as a pain-relief treatment, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, and is extremely addictive, with a painkilling power of around 50 times greater than heroin, and 100 times more than morphine.

Fentanyl and other opioid drugs bind to the body's opioid receptors, leading to pain relief, as well as extreme happiness, drowsiness, nausea, sedation or even unconsciousness.

The bright colors may not be deliberately dangerous, but they could inadvertently make the drug more deadly, including by appearing similar to candy to children.

"Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a statement.

However, according to Dunn, "there is no evidence from the field that colored fentanyl is being targeted towards kids.

"However, youth can (and frequently are) inadvertently exposed to fentanyl by taking what they don't realize are counterfeit pills and parents can protect them by making them aware of the risk of taking pills not prescribed to them and ensuring naloxone (Narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids) is always available," she said.

Another dangerous effect of rainbow fentanyl is that it may be taken by someone who assumes the color means that the pill does not contain the opioid.

"There are also reports that dyeing fentanyl may help when it is mixed with other products to determine there are no fentanyl 'hot spots' (individual portions that are disproportionately fentanyl)," Dunn said.

"On the street, it can help persons who use other drugs like cocaine or crack know their product does not contain fentanyl."

If someone were to take a rainbow pill thinking it contained no fentanyl when it actually did, this could lead to an overdose.

"The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States," said Milgram in the DEA statement.