According to Drugs.com, that stamp is used to identify pills containing a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, but the official said at least one of the pills tested positive for fentanyl.
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Medical examiners found a lethal dose of fentanyl in Prince’s system.
Investigators searching Prince’s Paisley Park estate have found counterfeit drugs, which contain fentanyl, in the late singer’s dressing room.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, “It seems more and more likely that Prince became a casualty of what is being called a new national crisis of deadly counterfeit pills”.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said almost two dozen pills found in one Aleve bottle were falsely labelled as “Watson 385”.
Levinson also maintains that there is a possibility that Prince knew what pills he was taking and mislabeling the bottles of pills in his house was a way to keep them safe in case he gets searched.
If someone gave Prince the drug that killed him, that person could face a third-degree murder charge, punishable in the state of Minnesota by more than 12 years in prison, Tamburino said.
The only way to get fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin – is through a legal prescription, or illegally from the black market, said Joe Tamburino, a Minnesota defense attorney.
Fentanyl has been responsible for a surge in overdose deaths in some parts of the country.
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Investigators “are leaning toward the theory that [Prince] took the pills not knowing they contained” fentanyl, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on August 21. “Authorities also found a prescription bottle in someone else’s name that contained 10 oxycodone pills, the official said, without revealing who was listed on the prescription”.
