LOS ANGELES—While bars, clubs, and other late-night meeting places closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, online sales of counterfeit pills containing the synthetic opioid fentanyl exploded, killing more than 1,600 people in Los Angeles County last year, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official said Nov. 21.
Fentanyl poisoning is killing the region’s residents, particularly young people, on an unprecedented level, according to the department’s Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner.
