Fentanyl Crisis

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Substance abuse has long been a prominent issue in the United States, affecting thousands of families every year. Fentanyl has emerged as a cheap and powerful substitute for other opioids, creating an unprecedented crisis with its deadly consequences. The DEA defines fentanyl as a “potent synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as an analgesic (pain relief) and anesthetic”. When compared to other drugs, fentanyl is found to be 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.2 This drug also goes beyond the traditional opioid industry, posing additional risks to unsuspecting users, as other substances such as cannabis are increasingly laced with this drug. Known as the “fentanyl crisis”, …show more content…
Fentantyl was synthesized in Belgium by Dr. Paul Janssen and the Janssen Company in 1960 and was first used clinically in the United States as an intravenous analgesic in 1968. Prior to this time, morphine and meperidine were the most commonly used analgesics, but they are also composed of complex molecules, making the drugs expensive to produce and they also had a slow onset time.3 Thus, the scientists set out to find a more cost-effective and fast-acting drug, which were the only purposes they considered fentanyl useful for. The drug seemed to be very successful in its clinical applications, and was used in a variety of medications, including surgical anesthesia, and the management of severe cancer pain and perioperative pain. Within a short period of time, fentanyl quickly became the most commonly used synthetic opioid in clinical …show more content…
In addition, there are also notable gender disparities in regards to fentanyl overdoses. According to the study conducted by D’Orsogna and Bottcher in 2020, within Washington DC there was a mortality rate of 134 fatalities per 100,000 males and 43 fatalities per 100,000 females. 8 Interestingly, the mortality rate among females is growing at a faster rate than that of males, as for females it increased by +56% with respect to 2019 but for males this rate is 35%.8 These statistics demonstrate that while there is a gap between the fentanyl mortality rates between females and males, this gap is increasingly becoming more narrow. Fentanyl poses a larger threat than other drugs due to its addictive and powerful nature as well as its low cost to manufacture, making it a very profitable narcotic. This has led to many different forms of this drug to become available on the illicit drug market, which has unfortunately also led to it being used unknowingly by people who use other
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