DEA warns e-commerce companies over sales of pill presses

With the danger posed by illicit fentanyl at the forefront of concerns for drug regulators, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently wrote to e-commerce companies collectively warning them about the legal dangers of selling pill presses.

These presses, the agency alleged, have been used to make black market fentanyl pills. Fentanyl was involved in approximately 70 percent of the more than 110,700 Americans killed by drug poisonings in 2022 alone. Much of this can be traced back to the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels, which the DEA accused of manufacturing and smuggling the drugs into the United States, including through the use of pill presses.

Those presses, the agency added, help criminal actors to produce pills that mimic legitimate prescription medication. These pills can then be sold on social media and in person to those who don’t realize what they actually contain. Last year, the DEA seized more than 79 million fake pills containing fentanyl. In fact, seven out of 10 pills tested in a DEA lab were found to contain deadly doses of fentanyl.

“Drug traffickers are killing Americans by selling fentanyl hidden in fake pills made to look like real prescription medicines,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said. “This is possible because drug traffickers are able to buy the tools they need, like pill presses and stamps, online. E-commerce platforms cannot turn a blind eye to the fentanyl crisis and to the sale of pill presses on their platforms. They must do their part to protect the public, and when they do not, DEA will hold them accountable.”

Generally, the DA has enforcement powers over e-commerce platforms through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which requires compliance with recordkeeping, identification and reporting requirements on the distribution, importation and exportation of pill press machines. Therefore, failure to collect information on buyers and sellers, or to notify the DEA, could render them liable.

In recent years, some companies like Amazon and Etsy have outright banned the sale of pill presses and stamps, removing them from their websites following discussions with the DEA. Others, however, have continued to allow their sale or resale.