Russian Roulette
You may have seen in the news this week that 2017 was the worst year ever for drug overdose deaths - 200 people a day die from them. But if you're thinking heroin is responsible, think again.
If you haven't heard about Fentanyl and what it's doing to our nation, please read this. Imagine if you were grabbing a beer from your cooler as you hang out with friends, relaxing and having a great time, only there was a 50%+ chance that your beer was going to be potent enough to kill you. This is what's happening with the flood of Fentanyl being mixed with all forms of drugs - opioids, meth, cocaine and even synthetic marijuana. The photo below is from a drug-bust at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the Mexico border. The pills (20,000 of them) are Fentanyl - the marking on them says M30 - a designation of Oxycodone. This is why so many people are dying - they're taking a massively powerful, deadly drug without even knowing it.
Fentanyl is an extremely powerful synthetic opioid that was originally made for stage 4 cancer patients and highly controlled by doctors in hospitals. It's now being manufactured illegally in China and Mexico and being sent to the US in massive quantities. To get an idea of how potent it is, the photo below shows a lethal dose of heroin compared to a lethal dose of Fentanyl.
Now imagine these pure, illegally made Fentanyl pills coming across both the Canadian and Mexican borders, disguised as Oxycodone, a common prescription drug that's purchased on the street by many who are addicted. This is why the bodies keep falling. So many stories exist of people dying from an overdose that was caused not by the heroin or other opioid they took, but by the Fentanyl that had been added to the dose.
What does this mean? Overdoses are not just happening to people addicted to heroin or other opioids - anything purchased and/or taken that is not directly from a pharmacy or state-licensed cannabis store (in the states where it's legal) runs a high risk of being tainted by Fentanyl and could be deadly. It sounds like a sensationalized exaggeration, sadly it's not.