Justin King has seen the devastation fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl or methamphetamine can have on a family.

“Every time you see a death or hear of a death, it’s tragic,” said King, Drug Enforcement Ad­ministration (DEA) Omaha Div­ision special agent in charge.  “It doesn’t matter the age. I’ve seen everything from children to seniors and everything in be­tween.”

Consider most recently the account of two rural Midwesterners who died. “They thought they were using cocaine, but it had fentanyl in it,” King explained.

Or the teenager who passed a pill at a party and was told it was safe be­cause a friend promised: “I got ...