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– It is clear that Ksalol has spread to the entire Troms police district and certainly to other parts of the country. These are pills we strongly defend against, because we link them to the three overdose deaths we have had here in Tromsø, Troms Police District Investigation Chief Yngve Myrvoll tells TV 2.
There have been three seizures in the last month at Harstad in Troms, with the last seizure being on Tuesday. At that time, between 50 and 60 pills were seized.
Five people in their 20s were arrested in connection with the seizure on Tuesday; one of the five is in custody.
– 1,700 pills have been seized so far, but there is reason to believe that considerably larger quantities are available in the markets, Myrvoll says.
CONCERNED: Troms Police District Chief of Investigation Yngve Myrvoll is taking overdose deaths in Tromsø recently very seriously. Photo: Tobias Kvalvik Henriksen / TV 2
– 1700 pills in Harstad alone?
– Yes.
– Are these pills fake?
– Yes, one of the theories is that these are fake drugs that have been smuggled into Norway, which are now for sale in Troms, among other places, Myrvoll replies.
May contain fentanyl.
PILL STAMP: These pills were seized by the police in Harstad on Tuesday. Photo: Police
Xsalol has the same active ingredients as the better known Xanol and Xanax. The biggest concern of the police is that Ksalol tablets contain fentanyl.
It is a drug that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.
– We are concerned that fentanyl may be present in these tablets. This makes the matter even more serious, because the unpredictability of this active substance is extreme. It is extremely powerful and deadly in very small doses, he notes.
Three deaths
In Tromsø, fewer Ksalol seizures have been made after three people lost their lives in the last week. All three were found at private addresses, and two of the dead are said to be known.
The deaths are said to have occurred as a result of a combination of alcohol and pills, and police have made seizures that put the three deaths in context.
– It is not necessarily the number of tablets seized that gives an idea of what there are. There is reason to believe that many thousands of tablets have been smuggled into the police district and we are keen that as many tablets as possible are seized before they reach users, he says.
Alarms about life-threatening pills
Police suspect there are several thousand tablets throughout Norway.
– Based on the tablets we have found in Troms, there is good reason to believe that there are many thousands of tablets.
In the United States, fake fentanyl is among the leading causes of death from overdose. According to the Norwegian Medicines Agency, there have been hundreds of deaths in Sweden as a result of counterfeit pills containing the potentially deadly substance.
As a result, several have also died in Norway in recent years.
Activate the alarm
The Norwegian Medicines Agency is raising the alarm and fears that the fake pills will spread to various parts of the country.
– This is very serious. Unfortunately, we have seen several deaths with several different types of pills in recent years, says the medical director of the Norwegian Agency for Medicines, Steinar Madsen.
He says that it is difficult to tell the difference between real and fake pills.
– You can’t see the difference, that’s what it is. Many of these drugs are counterfeit, but they are so well counterfeited that even an expert has trouble seeing the difference, he says.
Madsen makes a clear appeal to young people who are considering taking fake pills:
– Stay away. You never know what you will get.
