Unlike other drug problems, the current drug problem in the United States is not with illegal drugs but legal ones. The nation’s problems with opioid drugs occurred when people used prescription pain medications such as OxyContin, Vicodin, and Norco.
Prompted by guidelines for prescribing pain medications and strong marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies, doctors wrote many prescriptions for such drugs, which prompted many people to use them. It also caused many people to abuse them, and many people died.
Strict regulations about prescribing and monitoring opioid drugs limited prescription opioids. People at first turned to illegal ways to obtain the drugs, but when they could not do this, they turned to a similar drug that was cheaper and more available: heroin. Today, people continue to overdose and die because of opioid addiction.
Now, there is fentanyl, which is one of the most dangerous drugs in America. It is a synthetic opioid that is typically used to treat severe pain related to cancer and surgeries. Fentanyl exists all over the country. It is taking the lives of all types of people. People who are rich or poor or young or old all have died due to fentanyl overdoses.
Pic Credit: https://pixabay.com/vectors/capsule-drug-gelatine-medicine-158568/
Fentanyl: What Is it?
Medical facilities use fentanyl to treat patients with severe pain. It is a synthetic opioid that often comes in a patch form. The drug is used to treat those with acute cancer pain and to help manage a person’s pain after surgery. Fentanyl is rapidly hitting the streets. Drug dealers are selling it to users all over the country. Often times, street fentanyl is laced with heroin, cocaine, or another drug.
Fentanyl: How Strong Is It?
Fentanyl is about 100 times more powerful than morphine and about fifty times stronger than heroin. Due to its high potency (https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/fentanyl), this drug can be very addictive. While it can help with pain, you must take fentanyl only as prescribed and only under the supervision of a doctor or medical professional.
Fentanyl: Is It Lethal?
Many studies show that fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. It has been responsible for the deaths of many people. Studies show taking as little as .25 milligrams of the drug can be fatal.
There are many varieties of fentanyl. They include carfentanil, a drug that is so powerful that people use it as a tranquilizer for elephants. Some kinds of fentanyl are extremely strong and do not respond well to naloxone (brand name: Narcan), a drug used by medical professionals to reverse opioid overdoses.
Fentanyl: How Many People Has It Killed?
Thousands of people (https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/fentanyl-other-synthetic-opioids-drug-overdose-deaths) die every year due to synthetic opioid overdoses. Many of these deaths were caused by fentanyl or a variety of the drug. As the use of fentanyl rises, experts expect more deaths to occur every year.
Fentanyl: How Is the Drug Affecting the People of Michigan?
Opioid overdoes contributed to about 2,000 overdose deaths (https://www.drugabuse.gov/opioid-summaries-by-state/michigan-opioid-summary) in the state of Michigan in just 2017 alone. About 1,300 of these deaths involved synthetic opioids and many of them were due to fentanyl overdoses. Every year, more people are dying because of fentanyl. The drug takes over the lives of people and destroys them.
Fentanyl: If It Is Deadly, Why Do People Use It?
People use fentanyl for different reasons. Sometimes, people use it without even knowing it. People who prepare drugs might divide a batch of fentanyl and combine it with other drugs, often heroin. Every year, many people die because they use fentanyl combined with another drug. Some people who undergo drug tests who receive positive results for using heroin may also receive positive results for using fentanyl.
Pain management is another reason people use fentanyl. These users began using the drug legally and legitimately when their doctors prescribed it to relieve pain. They sometimes became addicted to the drug even when they were under the supervision of doctors.
The addicted people then may try to obtain the drug long after their doctors stop prescribing it. They may do this by buying fentanyl from drug dealers, which may be dangerous and lead to financial and legal problems.
Fentanyl is one of the most lethal and dangerous drugs (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/opioids/fentanyl.html) in the world. It has the potential to be an addictive substance. Year after year, more and more people are becoming addicted to fentanyl and the results are often fatal. If you have found yourself in this group of individuals, the best thing you can do is seek help from an addiction rehab facility, a treatment program, a doctor, or another medical professional. Treating your addiction could save your life.
As I continue to write for Sunshine Behavioral Health (https://www.facebook.com/SunshineBehavi1/), getting information like this to the public is very important. If you found this article interesting, please do share it on social media.