Disadvantages Of Fentanyl

     Illicit drug use and the debate surrounding the various legal options available to the government in an effort to curtail it is nothing new to America. Since the enactment of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 (Erowid) the public has struggled with how to effectively deal with this phenomena, from catching individual users to deciding what to do with those who are convicted (DEA). Complicating the issue further is the ever-expanding list of substances available for abuse. Some are concocted in basements or bathtubs by drug addicts themselves, some in the labs of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and still others are just old compounds waiting for society to discover them.

Commonly used in medicine as an anesthetic or narcotic for pain relief, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. It is usually administered in very small doses as premedication for surgeries or as a reliever for chronic pain in cancer patients. In veterinary medicine, fentanyl can also be used to tranquilize or sedate animals. This substance can be found in the form of a tablet, injection, patch or spray, and is legal if it is prescribed for medical purposes. Intoxication can also occur through exposure, as detailed by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A drug has become very popular on the street and you might have had it before. Over the last year a medical drug called Fentanyl has started being made by drug dealers. Normally Fentanyl is used in hospitals as a powerful painkiller so it may have been used on you before. However, fentanyl like most painkillers is highly addictive and dangerous. In fact, Fentanyl is 50-100 times stronger then the commonly known painkiller Morphine. It’s also 25-50 stronger then the modern street drug heroin. Because it’s so strong only 2-3 milligrams of Fentanyl are enough for someone to suffer a fetal overdose. A little while back; enough Fentanyl was seized in a New York drug bust to kill 32 million people. So now America has declared a national emergency

As the opioid epidemic continues to rise, news outlets and politicians have focused their attention on heroin and opioids. However, they continue to ignore the number one killer, fentanyl. This synthetic opioid is similar to heroin but 50-100 times more potent. In the pharmaceutical industry, fentanyl is prescribed to treat extreme pain, specifically in cancer patients.

Developed in 1959 by a Belgian chemist, Fentanyl came into widespread use in the mid-1990s as a painkiller and anesthetic. With the widespread availability of this drug as a common prescription, it’s not difficult to understand how easy it is to become dependant on. Here begins the problem, for once their prescriptions run out, people need to buy drugs off the street to feed their addictions. Now, buying drugs off the street can be incredibly dangerous, as drugs produced in illegal labs without a way to control dosage can be deadly. This is an especially big issue with fentanyl, because of its potency; “A few hundred

Rates of opioid-related overdose have been rapidly increasing in the United States. From 2010-2015, overdose deaths attributed to the use of illicit opioids has increased by over 200% (1). In 2016, the number of opioid-related deaths reached 64,070, the highest number ever recorded in the nation’s history and anticipated to increase (2). While opioid-related overdose had been largely caused by prescription opioid misuse, the problem is increasingly due to heroin and other illicit opioid use (3, 4). Increasingly, illicitly-manufactured fentanyl (IMF), an opioid much stronger than heroin, has become an increasingly common additive pervasive in the supply in the United States and has contributed to the steep rise in opioid-related overdose (5-8).

Australian Crime Commission, 2013. Drug Analouges and Novel Substances, p, 2. Available from: < https://www.crimecommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/DRUG%20ANALOGUES%20AND%20NOVEL%20SUBSTANCES%20JULY%202013.pdf>. [25 May 2014]

Last summer two men in Hunt county Texas were arrested for selling synthetic drugs reported by the Herald Banner. The lab reports returned “the substance was not illegal at the time of the offense”. This is not an isolated case but a continuing dilemma for law makers, enforcers and prosecutors against the makers and distributors of designer drugs. (1) Creating a ‘War on Drugs’ is not a solution. Due to the simplicity of manipulating a product on the banned substance list, chemical change formulations outpace efforts to impose control. (Stock, S. Web)

Opioid pain medications and heroin use resulted in 131overdoses and 20 deaths in Jackson County in 2014. In 2016, the total number of drugoverdose deaths is estimated to be at least 50. On average, five people are treated in theemergency room every day at Henry Ford Allegiance Health. (Jackson County HealthDepartment, 2016).The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is seeing an “increase in unintentional fentanyl-related overdose fatalities in multiple states, primarily driven by illicitly manufacturedfentanyl (IMF)” (CDC Heath Alert Network, 2016). According to a personal interview Iconducted with Phil Pavona, Vice President of Families Against Narcotics in Okemos,Michigan, it is more profitable for drug dealers to make fentanyl than it is to buy Heroinfrom other countries.Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl are being sold illegally on the streets “labeled asOxycodone, Xanax, and Norco” (CDC Heath Alert Network, 2016). Phil Pavona, wholost his oldest son to heroin overdose in 2011, explained to me that by the time drugsarrive in mid-Michigan they have changed hands many times and are often laced withIMF.According to Valley News Live (2016), police in Bismarck, North Dakota, caution usersthat marijuana there is being laced with fentanyl and meth. “Fentanyl can be fatal ifswallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin” (Valley News Live, 2016). Fentanylhas also surfaced in marijuana in British Columbia (CBC News, 2015).Given that every participant in my survey thinks some Mason students will smokemarijuana, the possibility of tainted marijuana arriving in this area is a serious concern.Laced heroin, fake prescription drugs, and marijuana mixed with fentanyl are sold tounsuspecting drug

“Americans account for 99% of the worlds hydrocodone consumption, 80% of the worlds oxycodone consumption and 65% of the worlds hydromorphone consumption, according to the New York Times” (Elkins, 2015). Pain killers are one of the most abused drugs in the United States. “Every year, prescription pain killers cause more than 16,000 deaths and 475,000 emergency room visits” (Elkins, 2015). The proposed bill HB 330(BR-990) will be beneficial to the healthcare industry. One step that has been made to deter drug abuse is the development of opioids that are formulated to deter abuse. “An abuse-deterrent formulations

Bouchard et al. (2011) assert that there are no assessments regarding the amount of ATS being produced and the amount of ATS lab seizures stays low. Estimates for ATS use and seizure data suggest that there is an annual surplus of between 1733 kg and 8624 kg of ATS available to be exported from Canada (Bouchard et al., 2011). Bouchard et al. (2011) contend that this indicates that somewhere between 38% and 75% of ATS produced in Canada is exported. Organized crime groups have greatly increased synthetic drug export to foreign countries, such as the United States, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, by transforming legally acquired substances from pharmacies (Morselli et al., 2016). Morselli et al. (2016) state that 62 percent of illicit drug

To give a frame of reference regarding its lineage: carfentanil derived from fentanyl which is a synthetic narcotic analgesic derived from morphine. On a scale of potency from morphine; so fentanyl (street drug name: serial killer) is 100 times more powerful and then carfentanil (drop dead) is 100 times more potent than fentanyl. Yes, that’s right; mathematically worked out

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid drug that is significantly more potent than Morphine. Fentanyl overdose has recently been discussed with the public and media since the death of famous musician Prince in 2016 consequently on a Fentanyl overdose. Now, we are informed on the increased cases of fentanyl overdoses and the thousands of lives claimed due to these overdoses. The most shocking detail is that cases of fentanyl overdose keep on increasing. Teenagers are the most vulnerable in this scenario because they aren’t aware of the dangers of this drug and its negative health outcomes. Teenagers are easily exposed to street versions of the drug which are often mixed with heroin, and thus, become more unsafe and potent. Because Fentanyl

To say that fentanyl is dangerous is a major understatement, this is a drug that will is highly addictive and can be potentially life threatening. This is a drug that is 400 times more powerful than heroin and is known for its severe power. It is stronger than heroin and stronger than morphine. This report was detail the impact and severity of this drug and I will detail sufficient information about this drug. It is classified as being a schedule II prescription drug. This drug is generally used for people that are suffering from unbearable pain or it can be taken to manage pain after surgery.

As time went on dealers that would sell this drug would often to fentanyl in heroin to make it more addictive. The fentanyl made the drug extremely dangerous. The more fentanyl you put in the drug the higher the consumer would get. The user would get more addicted to the fentanyl because of the high that it would give them. Fentanyl is also killing a lot of people causing them to overdose because of such a high amount of fentanyl was consumed into their bodies. Fentanyl makes the user become more addictive with the drug and makes them crave faster than before. The more fentanyl in the drug, the more the drug consumer will crave and having them the risk of overdosing. Fentanyl made the biggest impact over the last 10 years. It became the biggest