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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
By Keri Blakinger, Connor Sheetsand Brittny Mejia Los Angeles Times PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – As a shortage of Adderall stretches into its second year, millions of patients are still struggling to fill their prescriptions in U.S. pharmacies. But in Mexico, some pharmacies are selling the pricey orange pills over the counter, in sealed bottles bearing the names and logos of well-known pharmaceutical companies.One problem: They’re not real. Some are counterfeits made of methamphetamine, while others contain appetite suppressants, acetaminophen or caffeine.Ten months after the Los Angeles Times sounded the alarm about methamphetamine-tainted Adderall appearing in Mexican pharmacies, a follow-up investigation shows the problem is more sophisticated than previously known.A new round of testing in Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta found that counterfeiters in both beachfront cities are now passing off a wider array of substances as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications and selling the pills not only as Adderall but sometimes as a similar medication called Vyvanse.And, instead of just selling loose tablets one at a time, dozens of drug stores are offering painstakingly counterfeited bottles, complete with drug identification codes, lot numbers and sometimes even holographic anti-tamper seals. In some cases, identical bottles were found in multiple stores or regional chains.“It’s really bad to find out that pharmacies are selling whole bottles of fake medication, and clearly an effort has been made to make them look legitimate,” said Chelsea Shover, a UCLA researcher who published a study in 2023 on counterfeit medications in Mexico .“There was some sense before that maybe the problem was largely confined to single pills, but clearly that’s not the case,” Shover said. “It sounds like the problem of counterfeit medications is a lot more widespread than we would have thought.”Health care providers called the shift “very concerning,” and drug market experts said the sophistication of the faux bottles points to the involvement of large criminal organizations.“This is clearly escalating, increasing the quality of the fakes,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies organized crime. “That also suggests a systematic component – like the cartels. You wouldn’t have this consistency in the packaging if you didn’t have a big actor behind it.”Drug regulators in Mexico did not respond to requests for comment, although in recent months officials have cracked down with raids and seizures in multiple cities.Pharmacies in Mexico have long been known for selling a wide range of medications over the counter, many of which, in the United States, either require a prescription or are simply not available. But the official list of substances that can be legally prescribed in Mexico does not include Adderall – which makes it a prime target for counterfeiters catering to American travelers who can no longer get their medication at home.The Times first began investigating counterfeit medications in January 2023, when reporters traveled to Tijuana and Los Cabos and purchased loose pills over the counter from several brick-and-mortar drugstores.They found some of the pills sold as opioid painkillers were actually fentanyl, and all
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