Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and has a legitimate medical use to control severe chronic pain or severe pain after a surgery, but only under the supervision of a licensed medical professional.  Fentanyl is similar to morphine but about 100 times stronger.

While there is a time and place for prescription opiates, there is still the possibility of overdose if too much is taken and addiction if taken too long. Please discuss the risks in depth with your doctor before taking! 

It is the fentanyl in the illegal drug market that is responsible for most overdose/poisoning deaths.  There is no quality control in the illegal drug market.  You will never know the exact dosage and if it is a lethal amount or not until it is too late.  With the potency being so strong, even splitting a pill might not be enough.  You could get a portion of the pill with no fentanyl or get a part containing a lethal amount.  It's called The Chocolate Chip Cookie Effect.

Fentanyl Poisoning

It's also very dangerous to purchase and consume other illegal drugs because they may contain deadly dosage of fentanyl, and you wouldn’t be able to see it, taste it, or smell it. It is nearly impossible to tell if drugs have been laced with fentanyl unless you test your drugs with fentanyl test strips. Test strips are inexpensive and typically give results within 5 minutes, which can be the difference between life or death. HOWEVER, even if the test is negative, the portion not tested could still contain fentanyl and the strips might not detect even more potent drugs, like carfentanil and the tranquilizer Xylazine.  Read this DEA public safety alert here on Xylazine.  Drug dealers have already been mixing fentanyl with other drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.  Fentanyl poisoning is when someone buys some other drug but it is unknowningly laced with fentanyl, resulting in death.

​

Counterfeit Drugs

There is also the growing threat of counterfeit drugs. They are nearly impossible to identify as fake and are frequently laced with lethal doses of fentanyl. Evidence of counterfeit pill use in overdose deaths more than doubled from July–September 2019 to October–December 2021 (source: CDC.gov).  Could be oxycodone or could be fentanyl.  In short, never take drugs from anyone other than a doctor or the pharmacy.  The risk of fentanyl poisoning is too high.

learn More about Fentanyl

There are many resources available but we would like to leave you with the few sites below that you can learn more about fentanyl in the drug supply and fentanyl poisoning.  You might also learn more about what to do if you think someone is overdosing.  You could save a life.

CDC fentanyl facts
CDC - Opiod Basics
CDC - Stop an Overdose
DEA - Facts about fentanyl
National Institute of Drug Abuse - Fentanyl Drug Facts
​

Image Credit: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

Be sure to watch this Narcan instructional video.  You could save a life.