Something Wicked This Way Comes; What is Fentanyl?

In this week's episode, the Agents take a deep dive into a problem we are not ready for, the Fentanyl epidemic. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. It is both a prescribed drug, as well as a drug that is at times made and used illegally.

Like morphine, prescription fentanyl is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, especially after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat patients with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to other opioids. When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl can be given as a shot, a patch that is put on a person’s skin, or as lozenges that are sucked like cough drops.

Fentanyl that is illegally manufactured is dangerous. It is made without the quality controls of pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl and is a major contributor to recent increases in synthetic opioid overdose deaths. This illegally manufactured fentanyl is sold illegally as a powder, dropped onto blotter paper, put in eye droppers and nasal sprays, or made into counterfeit pills that look like other prescription opioids.

Importantly, fentanyl is also being mixed with other drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA. This is especially risky when people taking drugs don’t realize that the drugs they are using might contain fentanyl and significantly increase their risk for overdose death.

A person can easily overdose on fentanyl. An overdose occurs when a drug produces serious adverse effects and life-threatening symptoms. Death from an opioid overdose happens when the drug depresses the parts of the brain that control breathing.

Fentanyl is addictive because of its potency. A person taking prescription fentanyl as instructed by a doctor can still experience dependence, which is characterized by withdrawal symptoms when the drug is stopped. A person can be dependent on a substance without being addicted, but dependence can sometimes lead to addiction.