4 ms·

Fentanyl is a thing also because it's easier to make than heroin because the reactants needed are easier to get your hands on, therefore cheaper for the dealer'

by mveety 10y ago

Fentanyl is a thing also because it's easier to make than heroin because the reactants needed are easier to get your hands on, therefore cheaper for the dealer's/cartel's/gang's chemists to make. On the more potent point, almost(?) all of the more potent opioids are derivatives of fentanyl and iirc use fentanyl in the synthesis so probably won't become a street drug. Also they're so potent they really are only good for killing people. (Honestly I'm suprised fentanyl is a thing because the active dose is like tens of micrograms and requires expensive equipment to measure safely. But I doubt drug cartels care if they're customers are poisoned by their product.)

zkms 10y ago
> On the more potent point, almost(?) all of the more potent opioids are derivatives of fentanyl and iirc use fentanyl in the synthesis so probably won't become a street drug. You're alas wrong here. There's already derivatives of fentanyl being made illicitly and appearing in the illicit drugs markets. Not just any analogues of fent either -- there's been carfentanil (an opioid so potent that it's been successfully used as a chemical weapon) in product sold as heroin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil > Honestly I'm suprised fentanyl is a thing because the active dose is like tens of micrograms and requires expensive equipment to measure safely Ah, but a tiny active dose means that for a given quantity of raw material, lots of (very diluted) doses for end users can be made. This is the deadly "iron law of prohibition" at work here -- the harder the enforcement, the more potent the drugs. For a unit volume (so, for a unit risk of ending up in a concrete box) of uncut/active material, you want to be able to sell the most diluted/cut doses to end-users. Of course people will want their chemist to synthesise carfentanil (over regular fentanyl), because you can supply the the same number of end-user doses with 10,000 times less active material.

by mveety 10y ago

zkms 10y ago

> On the more potent point, almost(?) all of the more potent opioids are derivatives of fentanyl and iirc use fentanyl in the synthesis so probably won't become a street drug. You're alas wrong here. There's already derivatives of fentanyl being made illicitly and appearing in the illicit drugs markets. Not just any analogues of fent either -- there's been carfentanil (an opioid so potent that it's been successfully used as a chemical weapon) in product sold as heroin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfentanil > Honestly I'm suprised fentanyl is a thing because the active dose is like tens of micrograms and requires expensive equipment to measure safely Ah, but a tiny active dose means that for a given quantity of raw material, lots of (very diluted) doses for end users can be made. This is the deadly "iron law of prohibition" at work here -- the harder the enforcement, the more potent the drugs. For a unit volume (so, for a unit risk of ending up in a concrete box) of uncut/active material, you want to be able to sell the most diluted/cut doses to end-users. Of course people will want their chemist to synthesise carfentanil (over regular fentanyl), because you can supply the the same number of end-user doses with 10,000 times less active material.