Brightly coloured fentanyl pressed into drugs or in a chalky type—referred to as rainbow fentanyl—was present in 18 states, a press release from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warns, and drug sellers getting “children and younger adults” hooked early on.
It was solely a matter of time till fentanyl and different lethal medication have been marketed the way in which designer medication are, as colorfully branded drugs and in different kinds.
“Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl drugs and powder that are available in quite a lot of vibrant colours, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive habit amongst children and younger adults,” mentioned DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “The women and men of the DEA are relentlessly working to cease the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels which can be accountable for the overwhelming majority of the fentanyl that’s being trafficked in the US.”
Whereas even the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) admits there has never been a fatal overdose recorded from cannabis alone—fentanyl is a very totally different story, as it has a knack for stopping breathing.
There’s no different approach to have a look at what’s occurring in the US with opioids as something apart from an epidemic. In truth, in line with NIDA’s knowledge, deaths involving artificial opioids apart from methadone—primarily fentanyl—continued their regular loss of life march with 56,516 overdose deaths reported in 2020.
That quantity, 56,526 deaths, is within the ballpark of total U.S. military casualties during the Vietnam War recorded within the Protection Casualty Evaluation System. Equally, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) recorded 107,622 whole drug overdoses in 2021, and say that almost all, or 66% of these deaths, are associated to artificial opioids like fentanyl. (The CDC also says an overdose from hashish is “unlikely.”)
An overdose from by chance taking a bit an excessive amount of fentanyl, nevertheless, is doubtless. The DEA’s announcement reminds us that fentanyl is 50 occasions stronger than heroin and 100 occasions stronger than morphine. In different phrases, 2 mg of fentanyl, equal to 10-15 grains of desk salt, can kill you. Clearly, avenue medication don’t present lab testing outcomes—and the margin for error is as slim as 2 mg.
The opioid epidemic is a multifaceted downside, nevertheless. On the flip aspect of the opioid epidemic, there are additionally people with high-level pain who complain that they are denied opioids and falsely labeled addicts.
The DEA announcement blames cartels for the rise in rainbow fentanyl, explaining that the fentanyl obtainable in the US is primarily provided by two felony drug networks: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Era Cartel (CJNG).
Uttam Dhillon, former appearing administrator of the DEA, advised Yahoo! Information on September 1 that the Sinaloa cartel has ramped up capsule manufacturing massive time, and that DEA brokers are actually seizing hundreds of thousands of fentanyl drugs in locations akin to Los Angeles.
“Even seeing only one lab in Mexico urgent drugs was one thing distinctive that we have been seeing. And this was only some years in the past,” Dhillon told Yahoo! Information. “Now we’re seeing actually 1,000,000 drugs being seized in Los Angeles, for instance, only a few months in the past. So the expansion has been huge.”
The DEA is preventing again with public consciousness campaigns and FAQ sheets.
Launched in September 2021, the ”One Pill Can Kill” Public Awareness Campaign was launched by the DEA with a aim to teach People in regards to the risks of faux drugs, which might be disguised as a much less harmful capsule or in different methods. The DEA additionally offers extra assets for fogeys that may be discovered on DEA’s Fentanyl Awareness web page.