The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning the public of a “significant nationwide surge” in potentially lethal counterfeit prescription pills. In a rare public safety alert released Monday, the DEA says Americans are being killed at an “unprecedented rate” by pills manufactured in labs and deceptively sold by criminal networks. Those pills, according to the federal counternarcotics agency, are disguised as legitimate prescription drugs but contain lethal amounts of fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. While fentanyl can be prescribed by doctors in rare cases of chronic pain, its main distribution is through illegal channels. The DEA says more than 9.5 million counterfeit pills have been seized so far in 2021, more than the total seized in the previous two years; and lab testing shows a dramatic rise in the number of pills containing at least two …