Fentanyl

The opioid crisis has only intensified as more illicit drugs have entered the market. Drug overdose deaths reached a record high in 2021, with more than 100,000 people lost to the continuing epidemic, fueled by the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl. The drug, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times that of morphine. Illicit forms of fentanyl are mainly manufactured by drug cartels in Mexico and spreading in the U.S.What is fentanyl? Fentanyl…

Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in non-medical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl.  Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded.In 2016, my colleagues and I found…

Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of millions of possible chemical variants, or analogs, of fentanyl. PNNL scientists are tracking measurements of the forms already developed and predicting data for others that might be created. Credit: Sonis Photography | Shutterstock.comExpanded library of known variants, new research efforts aid the fight against fentanyl.While Covid has dominated the news for the last two years, a separate epidemic claims the lives of more than 100,000 Americans each year. Fentanyl, a…