Fentanyl is a prescription opioid medication without any morphine. Some people have a natural inability to metabolize morphine. For such patients, typically those in need of treatment for chronic pain, pharmaceutical companies created fentanyl. Instead of being based in morphine, it is a synthetic opioid. In order for the drug to work, however, it has to be stronger than morphine. Fentanyl is reported to be up to 100 times stronger than morphine.
In recent years, overseas manufacturers found the public files which contained information on the formulas for producing fentanyl and other synthetic opioid types like W-18, carfentanil, and U-47700. Once drug producers found a way to make fentanyl for cheap, they started selling it on the black market. Discovering the intense addiction and effect of the drug, they also started putting it into other illegal medications including heroin, cocaine, and pills meant to mimic benzodiazepines.
Fentanyl is considered highly dangerous because of how strong the drug is. Most frighteningly, in its powder form, fentanyl is undetectable. Translucent and almost invisible, as well as tasteless, the presence of fentanyl in any drug is impossible to predict without laboratory testing. In March of 2017, the United Nations declared fentanyl as one of the most dangerous drugs in the world, according to The Daily Mail. Two of the ingredients used to create fentanyl were put on the UN controlled substances list.
“Overtime, fentanyl can increase your risk for anoxic injury (damage due to significantly decreased oxygen in the body tissues) and multiple organ system damage,” the article writes. “It can also initiate or worsen pre-existing mental health conditions, including depression and/or frequently changing moods.”
Fentanyl can also cause an addiction, which some have described like playing russian roulette using a ticking time bomb on the wheel. Overdose on fentanyl is possible at any moment, whether or not a tolerance has developed. Abuse of fentanyl happens through intravenous use, pill form, and through the use of medicated patches.
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