Across the nation, fentanyl laced drugs are wreaking havoc. Most people have no idea they are taking a dangerous opioid. An ultra-powerful synthetic opioid analgesic, fentanyl is not for public use. The original design of the drug for hospital use is to manage extreme pain. Similar to morphine in chemical structure, fentanyl is fifty to one hundred times more potent. In other words, it makes heroin, the traditional dire wolf of the illegal drug world, look like a harmless, little puppy.  

Fentanyl’s devastation is no longer affecting just hardcore opioid addicts. Looking for the ultimate high, these addicts experiment with fentanyl. Hence, the result of such experimentation is often an overdose. Given the drug’s power, managing the dosage outside of a hospital is exceedingly difficult. Occasionally, people die because the illegal heroin they buy on the street is fentanyl laced. Not knowing the power of what they are taking, they overdose.  

Tarzana Treatment Centers and Fentanyl Laced Drugs

As a nonprofit organization offering substance use disorder treatment options, Tarzana Treatment Centers (TTC) battles against fentanyl laced drugs. Too many young people experience accidental overdoses. Indeed, they unwittingly take fentanyl laced drugs and die. 

Today, the contamination of fentanyl laced drugs is spreading far and wide. Thus, the unknown active ingredient in a wide range of black-market drugs is fentanyl. Indeed, people buy black–market benzos like Xanax and Valium or party drugs like Ecstasy and Molly. However, they are buying a fentanyl laced time bomb.  

In study after study, the active ingredient in over 50 percent of illegal drugs sold in clubs and bars is fentanyl. Since fentanyl is so powerful, a little goes an exceptionally long way, stretching out the profits for countless drug dealers, including the notorious Mexican drug cartels. Detailing the problem at hand, Matthew Donahue, deputy chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told NPR, “It’s just getting worse, and it’s killing too many people.”  

Fentanyl Laced Drugs Combine Chinese Factories with Mexican Cartels

According to a study published in the US National Library of Medicine, “Public health professionals have feared a ‘fentanyl breakthrough’ in western U.S. drug markets could further accelerate overdose mortality. Available 2020 data shows a 63 % growth in fentanyl mortality over 2019.”  The explosive combination of Chinese factories and Mexican drug cartels result in fentanyl laced drugs.  

Although international pressure has been placed on Chinese companies to ban the export of fentanyl, the profitability of the fentanyl laced drug trade circumvents these efforts. Despite a ban by the Chinese government, chemists in China now send the precursor chemicals of the synthetic opioid to Mexico. Countless thousands of gallons of the basic ingredients for making fentanyl end up in Mexico. Indeed, the Chinese shipments open the door to more fentanyl laced abuse. 

Mexican Cartels Pushing Fentanyl Laced Drugs Hard

In Mexico, the cartels open factories to process the precursor chemicals into black-market fentanyl. Although the opioid market is huge, the Mexican Cartels experience an overflow of fentanyl. Thus, fentanyl contamination of other drugs becomes an option.

Therefore, the Mexican drug cartels made an executive decision to expand their distribution networks to include fentanyl laced drugs. Beyond opioids, why not use fentanyl as the active ingredient in other drugs? After all, who’s going to stop them? It is not like American drug addicts can call up the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and complain that the drugs they got from their drug dealer were contaminated.  

Indeed, a huge fentanyl supply now opens the door to whole new marketplaces for the Mexican Cartels. Thus, countless unexpecting Americans are in danger of opioid addiction and overdose. There is no end in sight to the deadly problem of fentanyl laced drugs.