Richard Frank and I have a piece on the fentanyl threat to public health in the current New England Journal of Medicine. I am still stunned by the incredible percentage of current opiate OD deaths that involve fentanyl and related substances.
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, poses an increasing public health threat. Low production costs encourage suppliers to “cut” heroin with the drug, particularly white powder heroin sold in the eastern United States. Fentanyl also appears as a prevalent active ingredient in counterfeit OxyContin (oxycodone) tablets. The result is that fentanyl plays a major role in rising mortality due to heroin or opioid overdose. It poses a serious overdose risk because it can rapidly suppress respiration and cause death more quickly than do other opioids
More here.
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