Off-Shore Drug Labs One Step Ahead of Law

(Winter 2016) More than seven times more powerful than morphine, the man-made opioid known as “pink” can be found on the internet’s “dark web” as a pill, powder or nasal spray – and was, until recently, legal in most of the United States. The drug was developed in the 1970s under the name U-47700 as an attempt to mimic morphine without the risk of addiction and slowed respiration, but it never hit the target – or the market. However, U-47700 was patented, leaving a trail of documentation for those wishing to clone it, and foreign labs began producing the drug in 2014. A Chinese lab has “pink” currently listed online at $120 per gram, or 10 grams for $290. Some users are drawn to the drug because it is inexpensive, easy to obtain and can be purchased without the use of a street dealer.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports confirmed deaths tied to “pink” in Ohio, New Hampshire, Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin. In September, the substance, which is entering the U.S. from China and other nations, was classified by the DEA as a Schedule I drug. Before that, Ohio and five other states had already banned U-47700. In all, the DEA has listed over 100 drugs to Schedule I since the inception of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970.

Although “pink” may be a banned substance in the United States, other synthetic drugs are steadily flowing out of off-shore labs and into our country. According to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, each week brings the release of a new psychoactive compound sold on the street as a replacement for opioid drugs or heroin, making the U.S. epidemic progressively worse. Some drugs, like “pink,” are based on formulas that were researched and then never released to the public. The majority are chemical mutations of the potent painkiller fentanyl.

See more Legal & Legislative Updates articles.