What is fentanyl, deadly drug seized in record numbers, enough to kill every American?

The United States says it has seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every man, woman and child in the country.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, which made the announcement, said it had captured 50.6 million fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder during the year.

The law enforcement group said that was "more than 379 million potentially deadly doses."

Worse, fentanyl, which caused only a fraction of overdose deaths a decade ago, is now the "deadliest drug threat facing this country," it said.

But what is fentanyl? And how deadly is it? Let’s take a closer look:

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What is it?

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl is a synthetic opioid.

It is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, as per the CDC.

Being easy to produce at low cost in the laboratory, the drug has flooded the American market in recent years.

Fentanyl has supplanted prescription opioids and heroin in the illegal drugs market.

The DEA said the primary sources of fentanyl in the United States are the Sinaloa and Jalisco Mexican drug cartels.

As per the CDC, illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) comes in liquid and powder form.

In powder form, it can be mixed with heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine and made into pills that are made to resemble other prescription opioids.

In liquid form, IMF can be found in nasal sprays, eye drops, and dropped onto paper or small candies.

Fentanyl's effects include

As per the DEA, the fentanyl goes by the following names in its street form – Apace, China Girl, China Town, China White, Dance Fever, Goodfellas, Great Bear, He-Man, Poison and Tango & Cash.

Some of it is distributed widely in the form of counterfeit prescription drugs like Percocet, OxyContin and Xanax, they said.

Origins of fentanyl

It was initially developed by pharma companies in order to treat the pain of cancer patients, as per the DEA.

In its prescription form, fentanyl is known by such names as Actiq®, Duragesic®, and Sublimaze®.4,5

Like morphine, it can be used to treat patients with severe pain, especially after surgery.

It can also be prescribed to patients suffering from chronic pain who have developed a tolerance to other opioids.

How deadly is it?

Very – it can be fatal even in very small doses.

The DEA says that some people overdose after thinking they are purchasing heroin but are actually buying fentanyl.

As per the CDC, it is a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the US.

As per official data, show fentanyl was the ‘major reason’ for the more than 107,000 overdose deaths across the United States from July 2021 to June 2022.

Authorities, warning in particular the risks of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, last week said drug overdoses among people aged 10 to 18 more than doubled in the United States between 2019 and 2021

The average monthly rate of overdose among adolescents increased by 109 percent between 2019 and 2021, as per the CDC.

And the number of overdoses involving illegally manufactured fentanyl increased by 182 percent.

With inputs from agencies

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