Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid analgesic. Fentanyl is 50-100 times MORE POTENT than morphine. It is classified as a class II controlled substance. This means that every dose used in medical facilities, dispensed from pharmacies, administered in hospitals have to be accounted for. In the medical setting Fentanyl is used to treat patients with severe pain or to manage pain after surgery. It is also used in patients that have chronic pain who cannot tolerate other opioids (morphine or dilaudid). Illegal doses of Fentanyl usually come from Mexico.
In the medical setting, fentanyl can be prescribed as an injection, a topical patch worn for several days that release the drug slowly, as a lozenge, or as a dissolvable tablet or film. The street version of fentanyl can be found as a powder for injection, as a powder placed on blotter paper that can be placed in the mouth and absorbed through the mucous membranes (tongue or cheek), as tablets, or mixed with heroin.
As with any drug epidemic times, the drug user is looking for a "higher high" and a "cheaper fix". Way back in the 1980's when there was an overabundance of powdered cocaine and prices were dropping, drug dealers decided to convert their powdered cocaine into 'crack', a solid form that could be smoked, by mixing it with baking soda. Uproxx.com states that the drug can become incredibly addictive (which most of us know) and depending on the ratio of baking soda to powder cocaine, can stretch the original product very far. This allowed a lot more drug to be sold, but in smaller amounts. The product was cheap, initially more potent, and more people were able to buy and get high and it was 'profitable' for the drug dealer. This created the ultimate 'higher high and cheaper fix'.
Unfortunately, the communities hit the hardest by the "crack epidemic" of the late 1980's were America's poorest. Nancy Reagan's "Just Say NO" campaign started in 1996 came in a little late as the violence and arrests associated with this epidemic ripped apart communities. Then there was the discriminatory 100-to-1 decree for possession or trafficking of crack vs. trafficking of powder cocaine. Congress decided to make crack cocaine the only drug that carried a mandatory minimum sentence for possession, even for first-time offenders. Laws that were supposed to focus federal efforts on locking up drug kingpins swamped federal courts with small-time cases, many involving couriers and street-corner sellers. You had 'corner boys" going to jail for years while the kingpins of the organization were getting not much time in jail at all. A great example given in this article printed in the New York times helped break down the 100-to-1 rule. The federal law mandated a 10-year sentence for anyone caught with 50 grams of crack, which was about the weight of a candy bar. To get a comparable sentence, a dealer selling powdered cocaine would have to be caught with 5,000 grams, enough to fill a briefcase . I never thought of discrimination on a drug dealing level, but there it was. Anyway, that law stayed in place for almost 30 years until 2010 when the Fair Sentencing Act cut the disparity from 100:1 to 18:1.
Today, government leaders are realizing that drug use, abuse, illegal sales and distribution really does happen in ALL communities and now that overdoses are happening to people of ALL economic classes these leaders are ringing the alarm. In 2015, more than 15,000 people died from overdoses involving opioids. As per the CDC, some of the greatest increases have occurred in demographic groups with historically low rates of heroin use: women, the privately insured, and people with higher incomes. In particular, heroin use has more than doubled in the past decade among young adults aged 18 to 25 years old. Gov. Christie of New Jersey is the ring leader trying to start the Opioid Commission in an effort to stop the opioid addiction issue. The problem is, in my opinion, they don't know where to start. As per the CNN article discussing the Opioid Commission, physicians and medical professionals based on their professional opinion look at this opioid crisis as a disease and feel that there needs to be available treatment with other drugs like methadone and buprenorphine. These drugs help decrease the cravings and ease the withdrawal symptoms for the illicit drugs. They also feel that psychological support in addition to the drug treatment will help those people rebuild their lives. These physicians feel that eliminating the Affordable Care Act would interfere with that process. People need health insurance that would allow them access to these types of treatments. Their stance is you can't incarcerate your way out of the overdose epidemic.
Unfortunately, this crisis has hit places that no one would ever expect it to. When you have live-in drug counselors and 13-year old children overdosing and dying from injecting heroin/fentanyl there is a problem that needs immediate and direct attention. It's tragic when a child dies.... What shall we do? Any suggestions?
SMOOCHES
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