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Prince Took Counterfeit Pills Containing Fentanyl; How Common Are They?

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Prince performs on Oct. 11, 2009 at the Grand Palais in Paris. (Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)
Prince performs on Oct. 11, 2009 at the Grand Palais in Paris. (Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported over the weekend that pills seized from Prince's home in Minnesota were marked as ordinary prescription painkillers but they actually contained fentanyl, the highly addictive synthetic drug that killed the pop star.

Last month, the Drug Enforcement Agency issued a report that said hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl have made their way onto the market.

Drug policy expert Carol Falkowski tells Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti that drug dealers are making the pills quickly and cheaply using pill presses and selling them, for instance, for as little as $10 per pill in clubs in New York City.

Guest

Carol Falkowski, CEO of Drug Abuse Dialogues. She will be a keynote speaker at a national symposium on the opioid crisis next month in Minneapolis.

This segment aired on August 23, 2016.

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