⚠️ Someone who is "snoring" heavily and cannot be woken is not asleep. That is an emergency.

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⚠️ Warning still current (Trimbos, April 2026): counterfeit oxycodone containing nitazenes is still circulating.

Read the warning →
How the market really works

Fakes pay better than the real thing. That is why they keep appearing.

With counterfeit cigarettes you get worse tobacco. With counterfeit oxycodone you get something nobody can identify. The same trade logic, the same margin, but a product where that logic turns lethal. This page explains why, and why you only notice when it is too late to do anything.

The short answer

Real oxycodone has to leak out of the legal supply chain and is therefore scarce and expensive. A pressed pill costs a fraction and sells for the same price. That is the whole explanation. No conspiracy, just margin.

What sets oxycodone apart from other counterfeits: you only find out hours later. With most products you know within minutes that it was nothing and you can complain. Here the effect builds slowly, one pill tells you nothing, and by the time you are certain it was fake, the number is unreachable and the courier has gone.

The comparison a dealer makes himself

For the seller it is the same product as counterfeit cigarettes

In conversations with people who trade in this, the same reasoning keeps coming back. They see no essential difference between counterfeit cigarettes and counterfeit medication: the real price has gone through the roof, the customer can no longer afford it, so you offer something cheaper that looks the same. To them that is not a moral question but a market question.

 Counterfeit cigarettesCounterfeit oxycodone
Reason to counterfeitReal price became too highReal price became too high
Margin for the sellerHighHigher, because the product is smaller and worth more per gram
When the buyer noticesImmediately, on the first dragHours later, or only after a second pill
Consequence for the buyerBad smoke, wasted moneyWithdrawal, or a dose that is too strong
Chance the seller is confrontedRealSmall: contact has already been broken

⚠️ That difference is precisely the business model

With almost any other counterfeit product there is a correction mechanism: the buyer notices, complains, does not come back, warns others. With oxycodone that mechanism does not work. The delayed onset means counterfeiting is rarely punished.

There is no feedback loop. The only person who notices quickly is the one who takes too much.

Two kinds of seller

The difference is not in how someone comes across

Years of conversations keep producing the same distinction. It is not a distinction between nice and nasty, or between professional and amateur. It is a difference in background, and from the outside it is invisible.

The seller who delivers

  • Usually got drawn in through the same problems and was once a user themselves.
  • Knows the torment of withdrawal from the inside.
  • Has built a network over time in closed groups.
  • Actually delivers, because their position depends on people coming back.

The seller who scams

  • Has never been a user and sells demand, not a product.
  • "Happens" to always have exactly what you name, in exactly the quantity you ask for.
  • Works with couriers, often young men, who carry the risk and absorb the anger.
  • Knows little about what they are selling.

The signal that comes back most often

Someone who always has exactly what you name does not have stock but a script. Real stock is limited and coincidental: sometimes there is something, sometimes not, sometimes something other than what you were looking for. Whoever says yes to every question is selling your own expectation back to you.

The same goes for product knowledge. Someone who does not know that the retard version is the slow-release one is selling something they know nothing about. That says nothing about the pill in their hand, but it does say how much they can tell you about it.

Why packaging proves nothing

A sealed box is not a hallmark, it is a sales technique

Loose pills in a bag feel unreliable. A sealed box with a package leaflet feels safe. That difference in feeling is real, and that is exactly why it is used.

1

Packaging is copied, and for expensive fakes it is copied well

Boxes, blisters, leaflets and stickers can all be produced. The higher the price being asked, the more it pays to invest in that. So it is not true that counterfeits always look shoddy; with the more expensive fakes the opposite holds.

2

Photos prove nothing about your order

The same photo of a stock is sent to dozens of people. Ask for a fresh photo with something specific in it and it does not come; instead the conversation shifts to pressure: order now, almost sold out, someone else is waiting. That shift from proof to hurry is itself the signal.

3

Why this is not a checklist for buying safely

Every feature that counts as trustworthy gets copied as soon as enough people look for it. That is exactly what happened with packaging. No feature holds up, because the market adapts to whatever buyers check. The only pill whose contents you know comes from a pharmacy.

What you see with genuine and with counterfeit
From the pharmacy Known substance, known strength = no visibledifference From the illegal market Unknown, possibly a nitazene
That is the whole drawing: there is nothing to see. Colour, shape, score line and packaging are copied, and with more expensive counterfeits that is done convincingly. Only laboratory analysis gives certainty, and you only have that afterwards.
What the sources say

Observations from conversations, alongside what has officially been established

What is written above comes from years of conversations with people who trade in this circuit, and from personal experience. Those are observations, not research. They are here because they explain what the figures do not: why this happens. Below is what has been formally established.

Not verified, but consistent

Dealers themselves quote high percentages of counterfeit and are almost certainly exaggerating. There is also no official percentage: at the Drugs Information and Monitoring System, counterfeit oxycodone falls into a residual category too small to break out separately.

What comes back consistently across many conversations is therefore not a number, but the logic: counterfeiting pays more, is rarely punished, and the price rises of recent years make it more attractive.

Treat this as context, not as a figure.

What institutions have found

The Netherlands Forensic Institute has investigated six deaths and four severe poisonings linked to a nitazene since late 2024. NFI toxicologist Kristof Maudens in November 2025: "In almost all cases the nitazene was found in counterfeit oxycodone tablets."

The NFI calls that a lower bound itself, because it has no view of testing done elsewhere. The NFI also reported finding 1,007 tablets containing protonitazene in 2024 that looked like oxycodone.

That is the argument of this page in official figures: people paid for oxycodone, something completely different was delivered, and that difference cost lives.

The full Red Alert timeline →
Frequently asked questions

What people ask about this

How often is oxycodone from the illegal market counterfeit?

There is no reliable percentage, not even officially: at the Drugs Information and Monitoring System, counterfeit oxycodone falls into a residual category too small to break out. What is established is the outcome: since late 2024 the NFI has investigated six deaths and four severe poisonings linked to a nitazene, in almost all cases via counterfeit oxycodone. The point is not the percentage. The point is that you never know beforehand.

Why would a dealer sell fakes if they can also supply the real thing?

Because real oxycodone has to leak out of the legal chain and is therefore scarce and expensive. A pressed pill costs a fraction and sells for the same price. With oxycodone something else comes on top that does not apply to other substances: the buyer only notices hours later that there was nothing in it, and by then contact has been broken.

Can you tell from the packaging whether oxycodone is genuine?

No. Boxes, blisters and leaflets are copied, and with more expensive counterfeits that is done convincingly. A sealed box feels more trustworthy than loose pills in a bag, and that is precisely why it is used to reassure you. Packaging is a sales technique, not proof.

What happens if you take counterfeit oxycodone?

With a placebo or an underdose the effect fails to arrive and you go into withdrawal while believing you took your medication. That is confusing and dangerous, because people then take more. With counterfeits containing synthetic opioids such as nitazenes the opposite risk is greater: then a pill is far too strong and a single dose can be fatal.

Why are couriers used?

Because the seller then stays out of range. The person at the door is usually not the one getting your money, and is often young. If someone gets angry because the pills are fake, the courier faces that anger and not the dealer. For you it means you never speak to the person deceiving you.

Do you recognise yourself in this? Then this is the moment.

Not because you are doing something wrong, but because the market you have ended up in does not work in your favour. The help page lists who you can call today.

Sources and accountability

  1. NOS, 29 November 2025: NFI figures on nitazene-related deaths and poisonings.
  2. Trimbos Institute, Monitor New Drugs, Annual Report 2024: 1,007 tablets containing protonitazene that looked like oxycodone.
  3. Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ): risks of medicines bought online.
  4. Trimbos Institute: deaths from drugs and opioid painkillers, reference year 2024.
  5. Observations from conversations with dealers and from personal experience, collected over several years. Not verified and not usable as a figure; included because it explains what the figures do not.

This page describes how the illegal market works, to make clear why there is no safe way to obtain oxycodone outside a pharmacy. Last checked: 23 July 2026.