Congressional lawmakers are calling on the State Department to issue a US travel warning

travellers

s that some Mexican pharmacies pass by

counterfeit pills made from fentanyl and methamphetamine as legitimate drugs.

US Senator

Ed

Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) sent a

joint

letter Friday to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken urging the department to immediately warn Americans traveling to Mexico about the danger they face when purchasing pills from Mexican pharmacies.

To explain the need for such a high-profile warning, the letter repeatedly cited a Los Angeles Times investigation and an investigation by UCLA investigators that both found dangerous counterfeit pills being sold without a prescription in pharmacies in northwestern Mexico.

According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. tourists who unknowingly purchase counterfeit pills from Mexican pharmacies, both with and without a prescription, face fatal risks from drugs that have effectively been poisoned, the letter said.

That said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

in an email that the agency does not comment on Congressional correspondence. The service has not responded to questions about the letter or whether it plans to issue travel advice.

Markey and Trone sent their letter a day before the Times published a new investigation into the final hours of the life of Brennan Harrell, a 29-year-old California man who overdosed and died in 2019 after consuming fentanyl-contaminated pills he bought at a pharmacy. in Cabo San Lucas

,

Mexico. Harrell’s parents fought unsuccessfully for the State De for over three years

pte

partment to issue a prominent warning about the dangers of Mexican pharmacies.

The risks of traveling to Mexico for its booming medical tourism industry came into sharp focus last week after four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros, a cartel-based

ravaged plagued

Mexican border town. Officials later told the travelers

possibly the victim of mistaken identity after the attackers believed their van was transporting rival mobsters.

The incident sparked international tension as Republican lawmakers in the US proposed sending troops across the border, while Mexico’s president blamed the violence on America’s appetite for illegal drugs.

We are very sorry about what is happening in the United States, but why are they not addressing the issue? Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador said this last week. Here we don’t produce fentanyl or consume fentanyl, he said, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

The wave

cartel cartel

has since condemned the violence, but only after two of the abducted American travelers were killed. One of two survivors who have both returned to the US since the harrowing ordeal was in Mexico for a tummy tuck, one of the nearly

a 1

million US citizens seeking medical procedures in the country each year.

the

sky

high cost of prescription drugs in the US has led to a lucrative Mexican pharmaceutical market that has seen some pharmacies selling dangerous, counterfeit drugs to oblivious visitors, such as

the

Times reported last month.

These counterfeit drugs put unsuspecting American tourists, some of whom are trying to avoid the high prices of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States, at risk of overdose and death, Markey and Trone wrote to Blinken. Markey served on the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking and Trone served as its co-chair.

The Los Angeles Times investigation found that 71% of the pills their researchers purchased from Mexican pharmacies were contaminated with powerful drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Travel advisories are public warnings from the state

department Department

to educate Americans traveling abroad about the risks they may face when visiting certain countries or locations. It is imperative that an immediate action be taken against Mexican pharmacies selling counterfeit, tainted pills, Markey and Trone wrote in their joint letter.

The State Department, through the travel advisories it issues, plays an important role in protecting the health and safety of Americans traveling abroad, the letter said.

Steffanie Strathdee, a distinguished professor of medicine at UC San Diego and co-author of the UCLA-led study, said advice is not enough.

“My opinion is that it’s a Band-Aid,” she said. “It doesn’t solve the problem, although it may help some people to be more wary, as long as that’s not the only thing being done.”