How China's fentanyl became the 'most deadly drugs crisis' on US streets

Fentanyl kills 200 people a day in America, a deadly epidemic felt throughout the country. We trace the journey of chemicals from China, to the drug labs of Mexico to the streets of the United States. Can the tide be stemmed?

[blueberry-rieb]

When doctors in US stopped prescribing opiates for pain then fentanyl filled the void.

[KevinShimomura]

if doctors inside the states get bonus for prescribing opioids DOES NOT MATTER where they come from, but laboratories produce more than 70% inside the nation, of course they pay taxes.

[OddRagnarDengLerstl]

In this logic the ironworks making the steel for the guns are responsible for killings, not the person who shot? Typical American exceptionalism.

[Jay...]

Four questions on China, multiple references about China, but not a word on Perdue or the Sackler's

[tanchye]

‘It’s China’
Trump’s favourite remark.
Instead of blaming others, ban the drugs, ban firearms. Have strict control over it.
Why America is not be able to do that.

[joelharris]

The paradox of living in the wealthiest nation in the world and then succumbing to an unhappiness epidemic rooted in pain

[JoseFernandez-cpcv]

I JUST GOING SAY WHY.BLAME SOMEONE ELSE FOR WHAT YOU do willingly. I been living on the US for 40 years never have touch drugs.with my hands

[ScottMcMaster-erxj]

Have a look at Rat Park a study by Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander in 1978. This study shows the role of the environment and social interaction on addictive behavior. It went a long way to debunking the chemical anchor theory of addiction. In the study rats were given

The key discovery from the Rat Park experiment was that healthy social interaction significantly affected addiction. Rats were given a choice between regular water and morphine laced water. When in an unhealthy environment without social interaction the rats opted for the morphine laced water. When placed in Rat Park with a fun environment to explore and with other rats to interact with and properly socialize with, the rats stopped drinking the morphine laced water and overwhelmingly opted just for regular water.

The findings showed that Rats in a supportive community were less likely to choose the morphine-laced water. This strongly refuted the chemical anchor theory of addiction.

[dormoisjean-pierre]

Thanks to Times Radio for introducing us overseas listeners to the "rich tapestry" of regional accents in the UK and reminding us that the global lingua franca spoken daily by 2bn people worldwide originated in these "small islands;" Just love those rolled Rs😉

[lauriebarns]

Key driver for Chinese ingredient suppliers is that it circumvents ccp ban on yuan exchange. Suppliers buy ingredients in yuan and get paid in dollars (outside China).

[monketstyling]

Blaming China for your problems, again?

[jamesmichaeljean]

Imagine blaming another person or country for your addiction problems. 😢

[seasonmists]

Interesting that Xi said in his last visit to America that China would help the US to deal with the drug problem. It's not a Chinese drug, and China supplies the chemical to all countries. It's interesting America sees it a good policy not to blame the importing country but the supplier of one ingredient.

[PedroFigueiredo-qx]

Consumption of drugs is also a grave crime, in Singapore there are no drugs due to death penalty. Chasing the providers and leaving the addicts unpunished is useless.

[sherrillwhately]

I must lead a sheltered life. I live in Arizona and have never known anyone affected by Fentanyl, I just heard about it on the news.

[sharefail]

Taken the MSM a while to wake up to this

[davidinmossy]

Instead of the authorities in the US panicking and taking everyone off their scripts they should have set up recovery programs for people wanting to come of the tablets or simply keep taking it. Opiates don't damage any internal organs. Its the lifestyle/ bad injecting technique and accidental over dose that gets you. But they didn't do that they paniced and caused all this mess 🙄

[boota]

Fentanyl was first synthesized by Paul Janssen a Belgian in 1959 and was approved for medical use in the United States in 1968. Fentanyl poses an exceptionally high overdose risk in humans, since the amount required to cause toxicity is unpredictable and was known in 1968. But apparently China are to blame, pull the other one!!!!

[stevetorres]

Countries can bring drugs to the United States but they cant force the people to use it. They use it by choice. That's the biggest problem.

[JohnSmith-flqd]

My beautiful son died 2 years ago from a fentanyl overdose