First developed to treat pain in cancer patients, the US now faces another form of drug epidemic. Fentanyl overdose is on the rise and is causing more American deaths.
Between 2014 and 2015, an increase of 72 percent in death caused by overdosing on synthetic opioids including fentanyl has been reported by a new study by the CDC.
In Pennsylvania, there were 349 fentanyl-related deaths in 2014. The number increased to 913 in 2015 according to the DEA.
In North Carolina, deaths from fentanyl went from 165 in 2014 to 226 in 2015. The same number of rise in deaths due to the drug can be seen through the country.
Fentanyl is a painkiller that is prescribed by doctors legally to treat severe, intractable pain. It is approximately 100 times stronger than morphine and 25 to 40 percent more potent than heroin.
According to the DEA, it only takes a few grains of the drug to be potentially lethal to a person as reported by ABC News.
Joseph Solomon, Police Chief of Methuen Police Department in Massachusetts states that the situation in his city is getting worse.
On New Year's Eve, police were dispatched to a reported incident involving a baby. The 10-month old baby had to be revived twice during the trip to the hospital and was later found out that the baby had traces of fentanyl.
According to the police chief, the threat has become a major concern for law enforcement in his city.
The black market for pharmaceutical fentanyl has grown alongside market for all prescription opioids according to a report from Fusion.
Several drug companies are now under fire with issues relating to legal use of fentanyl prescribed by doctors. Some companies reportedly paid doctors hefty sums in the form of kickbacks to prescribe their drugs.
On the street level, fentanyl is used to lace heroin making it a potent combination and has great potential to cause overdose and death to thousands of drug addicts hooked on the drug.
Drug dealers use fentanyl to make heroin much more potent and they purchase fentanyl that comes from pharmaceutical companies.
Fentanyl is also being produced at laboratories in Mexico and these are smuggled into the streets of the United States making the new epidemic harder to control.
