The Fentanyl Surge - Part 1

As Heroin and OxyContin Fade, Powerful and Cheap Fentanyl Kills 30,000 Per Year

Just when the U.S. began winning the war on prescription opioid misuse, synthetic fentanyl smuggled from China and Mexico has created an “unprecedented” increase in overdose deaths.

by Chris Adams, National Press Foundation

In many states, Oxy is old news – fentanyl is king. While deaths from prescription opioids such as OxyContin have begun to recede, overdoses from synthetic opioids – variants of fentanyl – have skyrocketed. Prescription opioids deaths never topped 20,000 a year; fentanyl deaths now exceed 30,000. Those official numbers are from 2019, the latest available; that lag in data is another problem for public health officials. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent, preliminary numbers indicate that about 90,000 people died from drug overdoses in the 12 months ended in September 2020. “What has happened in the last few years has been this unprecedented rise in the number of deaths involving synthetic opioids,” said Bryce Pardo, a policy researcher with the Rand Corp. who authored a major study on the issue. He and other researchers call it the “third wave” of the epidemic: prescription opioid deaths started climbing in the late 1990s, heroin deaths surged in 2010 and fentanyl deaths began to rise starting in about 2015.

China and Mexico are the top fentanyl suppliers. In the 1970s, more than 100 people died from fentanyl in California. In the 1980s, a fentanyl product sold as “China White heroin” showed up in Pennsylvania. In the 1990s and 2000s, other fentanyl variants emerged in big cities. These episodes were short-lived – three years or less. The current fentanyl outbreak is going on seven years. Almost all fentanyl is now smuggled in from China and Mexico. It is so potent and arrives in such tiny quantities that it is almost impossible to interdict. In the past, when law enforcement tried to interdict heroin at a port of entry or an international mail facility, “it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” Pardo said. “Well, now with fentanyl, it’s almost like trying to find a bacteria colony on that needle in that haystack.”

Fentanyl is lucrative. Manufacturing fentanyl is not as easy as making methamphetamine, but it is much easier than cultivating a poppy crop to produce heroin – and far more profitable. Producing heroin takes months and yields a product that has three times the power of morphine (the measurement unit used to compare the strength of opioids). A batch of synthetic fentanyl can be completed in a “matter of a few days,” Pardo said, the product is 50 to 100 times as powerful as morphine. Heroin fetches more money in the illicit marketplace, but the difference in potency makes fentanyl far more lucrative. “For suppliers, fentanyl is the future,” Pardo said.

Speaker: Bryce Pardo, Policy Researcher, Rand Corp.

This program is sponsored by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, with support from Arnold Ventures. NPF retains sole responsibility for programming and content.

[GiovanniGNV]

I'm in Cleveland, OH.. and man.. going to youngstown, ashtabula, toledo and so on.. you see the effects.

[alan]

I like how they mention that current dependancy therapies may not be sufficient with today's illicit fentanyl(s). You are now regularly hearing about how difficult bupe induction is because of people experiencing PW even after abstaining 3 or 4 days plus! Absolutely insane!

[josephsmith]

It's 2022 and most heroin markets are gone w mostly fentanyl replacement and the siezures are mostly on the border

[gurumayne]

Now this...
This is REAL information.
Whoever wants the true true root of what fetanyl is....watch this

[randallmittman]

Really dope video, facts on facts on facts on facts.
I knew fetty was being laced in lots of different drugs, but actually seeing the numbers like this is legit insane.

I swear I've been telling all of my homies that more and more of the dope that's showing up isnt actual fetty, you can immediately tell by the taste. The faketynal also hits harder than fetty if you don't have any tolerance to it.

Anyway, thank you for this video.

[Bob-ylpm]

Good video! Interesting. So it all comes down to displacing natural endorphins with a dependency on inferior substitutes

[nickdom]

( reason I believe, why fentanyl/blues. Blew up in such popularity so quickly. (1.- [Their imitation Percocets] when you see/think pill, u might think of (Doctor, pharmacy, or to get well.)- so it might seem more palatable/try, over somebody offering you a nasty black-tar/herion to smoke…(2. [ they were first cutting it in heroin between 2015 and 2017, around 2017 and 2018 is when Pill form emerged]- since they were imitation pharmaceuticals- (Percocets, Oxys, Xanax. Etc). Those illicit users all slowly knowing/unknowingly became fentanyl When somebody's depressed they're either going to harm themselves physically mentally or with but Not 100% case )