ADVISORY NOTICE

51.2%

Over half of people 12 and older have used illicit substances at least once.

1.15M

Drug overdoses have killed over 1 million people in the U.S. alone since 1999.

$44.5B

The federal budget for drug control in 2024 was nearly $45 billion.

DRUG INFORMATION

Methamphetamines

Identifying Methamphetamines

Visual clues matter, but safety comes first. Do not taste or sniff any unknown substance. Do not heat or burn it. Do not handle it with your bare hands if you can avoid it. The goal is to notice patterns and identify methamphetamine without risking exposure.

Here are practical, low-risk pointers:

Check the matrix: Shards that look like glassy chips are a classic giveaway. So is a mix of tiny crystals and powder in one bag.
Look for residue patterns: Meth smoke leaves sticky, yellow-brown film on glass pipes, foil, light bulbs, or makeshift devices.
Note the container: Tiny zip bags, foil squares, or plastic-wrapped “twists” show up commonly.
Observe consistency: Meth powder often appears less silky than cocaine and can clump. Shards crush to a sandy or salt-like texture.

If safety or legality is in question, contacting local authorities or a professional lab is the right move. If what you are really trying to evaluate is a loved one’s well-being, the bigger signal lies in visible signs of meth use and addiction rather than the product itself.

Fentanyl

Identifying fentanyl

Fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids, are primarily culpable for drug overdose deaths in the US, responsible for over 150 deaths a day across the country. fentanyl is extremely difficult to detect using only our senses, any information you can use can help save lives.

What does fentanyl look like?

Typically, fentanyl is available in either liquid or powdered form.

There are various ways liquid fentanyl is packaged and consumed, with it being used as eye drops, nasal sprays, pipette drops, and as a substitute for heroin.

Powdered fentanyl can resemble many other powdered forms of drugs. It is often hidden inside counterfeit prescription pills, such as fake Xanax or Percocet.

Cocaine

What Does Cocaine Look Like?

Cocaine powder is often white although it can also be off-white or yellow due to dealers cutting cocaine with other additives and drugs. It is often snorted and also rubbed around the gums or dissolved in liquid and injected.

Because cocaine sold on the streets is not regulated, it can look vastly different from batch to batch and include many different additives and substances, so you can never really know what you’re taking. This can be extremely dangerous because cocaine is often cut with potent opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil, which can lead to a fatal overdose.

It’s very unlikely you’ll find pure cocaine being sold illegally because dealers cut cocaine with other substances to increase profits.

Cocaine is a Schedule 2 substance, listed by the DEA, and is a Felony to possess.

Heroin

Recognizing Heroin

Heroin can be white, yellow, light brown, or black. If the substance is white, yellow, or brown, it is soft and powdery. Black heroin, which is also called “black tar,” is different because it is sticky and waxy.

If it is heated up, it often resembles ash. Fresh black-tar heroin is often very shiny. Brown heroin is cheap to purchase because it hasn’t been purified as thoroughly as white heroin, so it is usually smoked. White heroin is often diluted in water before it is injected into the body