Fentanyl - The Deadliest Dealer Additive

If you're involved with heroin, or you're concerned about someone who is, if you read nothing else here, READ THIS.  About every two or three years, a cycle seems to kick in within "heroin user communities" where dealers will start experimenting with "cutting" their supply of heroin by adding ingredients to it.  Ideally, the idea of "cutting" any drug is to end up with more of the drug while maintaining or boosting it's potential effect.  In other words, they begin to figure out how they can deliver the maximum "high" to keep their customers coming back, while maintaining maximum profit to keep their pockets full of cash.

Strychnine  (commonly used as rat poison) is one agent that has historically been used for cutting heroin.  Strychnine (pronounced "strick-nine") is used as the "poison of choice" in a lot of classic literature because it's one of the most horrific and painful ways to poison someone.  Other cutting agents include everything from simple chalk and talcum powder to horse tranquilizers.

Fentanyl And The Perverse Logic Of The Addicted Mind

However lately, we're beginning to see more and more heroin cut with "fentanyl."  Normally it's a powerful painkiller, (100 times more powerful than heroin, 80 times more powerful than morphine.) But when mixed with heroin and injected, it's absolutely lethal and the possibility of death by overdose skyrockets.  Fentanyl is so powerful, it's not even dosed in milligrams, fentanyl is prescribed in micrograms, which is 1/100th of a milligram.  It can take as little fentanyl as five or six salt-like grains to cause a fatal reaction because it depresses the breathing center in the brain’s medulla.  This supression in turn leads to asphyxiation. Since both heroin and fentanyl convert to morphine in the brain, a user’s regular dose automatically becomes an overdose, and a potentially fatal overdose.

In fact, we're told that fentanyl is so powerful, if someone with no tolerance for the drug were to accidentally touch some and then put their finger in their eye, or nose, they could actually overdose.

Methods Of Ingestion

Duragesic Patch

The most traditional form of ingestion for Fentanyl is via a "Duragesic patch."  This is a skin patch that releases the drug in a time-released fashion.  But people abusing this drug poke holes in it and squeeze out the "suspension gel" in the patch and then shoot it up or cut it open into square pieces called "chicklets," and chew those up or put those under their tongues.  (sublingual ingestion)  People who have died from overdosing on this drug have been found with multiple patches all over their body, needles still in their arms, etc.

"Perco-O-Pops" Or "Narco-Pops"

Actiq is a popular brand name of Fentanyl, and they make the oral lozenge form designed for children, and also for patients that have difficulty swallowing.  Pictured on the right, these have become known as "perco-o-pops" on the street, and are responsible for a large number of overdoses.  This form of Fentanyl   (like all forms of Fentanyl) were originally approved by the FDA for cancer patients.

Typically, these are diverted from hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and pharmacies.  We understand in the Midwest, they sell for about $ 20.00 on the street, and about $ 15.00 on the street on the west coast.

However, like so many powerful painkillers, Fentanyl is often prescribed by physicians for a wide variety of chornic pain conditions, including back pain.  A two-year probe by the Connecticut Attorney General's Office found evidence that the Chester County biotechnology company allegedly set (their quote) "unrealistic high sales quotas" for marketing representatives "that couldn't be reached without promoting the drug beyond its approved use."

In fact, less than one percent of Actiq prescriptions are written by oncologists. A research firm suggested that between June 2005 and October 2006, more than 80 percent of patients prescribed Actiq did not have cancer. Instead, it has been prescribed for non-approved uses such as migraine headaches, as as metnioned previously, back pain.

With the cap off, Perc-O-Pops” look similar to a foam covered oral swab.  We know that they can be purchased on line, and we also know they have been traded and bartered on some of the better-known forum sites popular with young adults and kids.

Fentanyl On The Street

Fentanyl goes by the street names "drop dead," "executioner," "flat-liner," "the exorcist," "Al Capone," "fefe," "Teflon," "diesel," and "D.O.A."  (among others)  In areas of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan and other nearby states, addicts mixing heroin with Fentanyl have been dropping like flies.

But here's the real shocker.  When a bunch of addicts start dying because of a particularly lethal batch of heroin, it increases the demand for that batch!!  That's because in the twisted logic of the addicted mind, "if it killed a bunch of people, it's got to be good stuff!"

Well, it is killing a bunch of people.  In Wayne County Michigan, fifty people died from this mix in a two week period and on May 19th, 2006, the fentanyl/heroin mix killed 19 people on just that one day.  Also in May, eleven people died from the mix in one day in Chicago, Illinois.  Over the past month and a half or so, there have been over 100 deaths across eight states.

Since April of this year, Montgomery and Berks counties reported more than 30 fentanyl-related deaths. In Philadelphia, 70 deaths and up to 220 overdoses occurred, and in the tri-state area, there were 200 deaths and 500 overdoses, according to a 2006 Pennsylvania State Police report.

Fentanyl Meets Oxycontin?

As if Oxycontin and Fentanyl weren't powerful or addictive enough on their own, there have also been reports of clandestine labs that were producing a "hybrid" pill.  While sold as Oxycontin 80 mg. pills, these pills were actually a mix made with Fentanyl.  And that could be really dangerous (or deadly) for the unsuspecting user.  It's believed these pills have been distributed in Omaha and Albuquerque and as far east as New York City.

In the July 2007 Issue of our Newsletter, we're going to be doing a major examination of the whole Fentanyl problem and it's going to be a real eye-opener for anyone concerned.

Top Of Page

| 1 | 2 | 3 |Previous Pages<<<                            >>>Next Page (5)