DEA warns of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ being used to target young people

The Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.) has issued a warning Tuesday about a new trendy “brightly-colored” fentanyl pill known as “rainbow fentanyl.”

The DEA has seized the “rainbow fentanyl” in over 18 states in the month of August alone. According to the DEA, it is being sold to young people in multiple forms, which include pills, powder, and blocks which resemble sidewalk chalk.

“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 Anna Milgram, the DEA Administrator. 

Authorities in Portland have recently made two seizures of rainbow fentanyl which resemble sidewalk chalk young children use to draw on the sidewalks. Another large batch of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ was discovered in West Virginia, where authorities have recently seized over 15,000 multi-colored pills from one individual.

According to Fox News, the DEA said in a statement, “This trend appears to be a new method used by drug cartels to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly fentanyl made to look like candy to children and young people.”

Over recent years, synthetic opioids like fentanyl have become a very common drug in the United States and worse of all, has been associated with overdose deaths in the U.S. Of the more than 107,000 deaths in the U.S. that were reported in 2021, 66 percent were due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.