Pills sold on the black market are held out to be prescription medications, and they look like the real thing.
Public Information Officer Emily Murray of the Drug Enforcement Administration says looks are deceiving.
Murray says the number of arrests, and drug poisoning cases is on the rise throughout the region.
Chances are high that they may contain a fatal dose of fentanyl.
Murray says there’s no such thing as a safe pill on the black market.
More than 110-thousand people died of drug overdoses in the U-S last year.
Just two milligrams of the drug can be fatal.
Murray says more than four out of ten pills tested last year contained a potentially fatal dose.
State officials say drug crimes involving meth were down by nearly 15 percent in the state last year, but fentanyl-related crimes were up by nearly nine-percent.