By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

At first glance, they look like candy. Brightly-colored tablets in shades of pink, purple, yellow and green. Not unlike a bag of Skittles or a bowl of Fruit Loops.

But they’re not sweet treats. They’re the latest version of “Mexican Oxy” – counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl, stamped with an “M” on one side and “30” on the other. Typically blue in color – like authentic oxycodone – the pills increasingly come in a variety of colors, what law enforcement agencies call “rainbow fentanyl.”

In recent weeks, rainbow fentanyl has been found in 18 states, including an August 17 bust at the Arizona border with Mexico, where over 15,000 of the colorful pills were found strapped to a smuggler’s leg.

It was the second consecutive day rainbow fentanyl was intercepted at the port of Nogales, a possible sign that drug cartels are targeting younger users.

“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,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement that warns of the “alarming emerging trend.”

The DEA says rainbow fentanyl is being seized in multiple forms, including blocks that resemble the chalk a child might use to color a sidewalk. A recent drug raid in Portland, Oregon turned up several powdered blocks of rainbow fentanyl, along with meth, heroin, hundreds of fentanyl pills and a small armory of guns.

“Deputies are particularly concerned about rainbow fentanyl getting into the hands of young adults or children, who mistake the drug for something else, such as candy or a toy, or those who may be willing to try the drug due to its playful coloring. The powdered fentanyl found during this investigation resembles the color and consistency of sidewalk chalk,” the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“We are seeing more powdered fentanyl that is dyed in various colors. The strength can vary but is typically stronger than pressed pills,” said Kelsi Junge, Harm Reduction Supervisor for Multnomah County.

Some colors are believed to be more potent than others, a claim that has not been confirmed by DEA laboratory tests.  

No matter the color or shape, rainbow fentanyl is dangerous. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, similar in size to 10-15 grains of salt, is considered a lethal dose. 

Because illicit fentanyl is cooked up in makeshift laboratories by amateur chemists, the potency of the pills or powder varies considerably.

The DEA says most of the illicit fentanyl in the United States is supplied by two Mexican drug cartels, the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, although there is no shortage of Americans willing to transport the drugs or turn them into tablets with pill presses.

“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.

Fentanyl is a potent analgesic that is prescribed legally for severe pain, but it is illicit fentanyl and its analogues that are responsible for the vast majority of drug deaths. According to the CDC, over 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, with two-thirds of the deaths linked to fentanyl.