6 people hospitalized after taking fake prescription drugs

Six people in Florence and Williamsburg counties were hospitalized in the past two weeks after taking pills bought on the street, Florence sheriff Kenny Boone said on Wednesday.

The patients thought they had bought the prescription drug Roxicodone, which contains oxycodone as the active chemical ingredient. Instead, they bought bogus pills made to look like Roxicodone but which in fact contained no oxycodone, a lab analysis of one of the pills determined. The pill contained a synthetic cannabinoid or THC, the active chemical in marijuana, at concentrations perhaps 100 times that found in pot, Boone said. Final lab results on the pill tested still are pending.

Local and federal authorities are investigating the source of the pills. At such strong concentrations, the THC in the fake pills “presents significant and inevitable health risks like the hospitalizations we have seen recently,” Boone said.

Prescription Roxicodone bought from a pharmacy is not suspect, Boone said. The fake pills, although made to look like the real thing, do differ, he said: They are of a slightly lighter shade of blue than the real drug.

Anyone with information on the source of these counterfeit Roxicodone tablets is urged to contact FCSO Narcotics Investigators at (843) 665-2121, ext. 330 or Crime Stoppers of the Pee Dee at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 6:40 PM.