Deadlier than Heroin: How Fentanyl is Becoming Public Health Enemy No. 1

Deadlier than Heroin: How Fentanyl is Becoming Public Health Enemy No. 1 For the first time in the city’s recorded history, more than 1,000 New Yorkers are expected to die from a fatal drug overdose in 2017. Key to this record-breaking statistic is the increased abuse of fentanyl, a cheap synthetic opioid up to 100 times more powerful than heroin. Relatively unknown to the general public until recently, this drug’s astounding lethality is tearing across the country as deaths related to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surged more than 70% from 2014 to 2015. So where did this drug come from, and why are so many people dying because of it? Fentanyl has been utilized in medical settings since the 1960s. Its most common uses include treatment for chronic pain in cancer patients and as surgical anesthesia. But as the opioid abuse crisis rages on, fentanyl is becoming infamous for its unsettling presence in a growing number of fatal overdose toxicology reports. In some parts of the Northeast, fentanyl has even surpassed heroin as the most commonly detected drug in fatal overdoses. Several factors combine to make fentanyl an effective killer. For one, its extreme potency makes it very easy to accidentally overdose on, even in miniscule amounts. Non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is also much easier and cheaper to manufacture than heroin, making it a more cost effective product for drug dealers looking to stretch a batch of heroin and increase their profits. This means that some peo...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Richard Taite Source Type: blogs