3 ms·
Fentanyl has been around for 60 years. Why did it take off so hard in the 2010s? Did somebody popularize it? Historical accident?
by psyc 5y ago
Fentanyl has been around for 60 years. Why did it take off so hard in the 2010s? Did somebody popularize it? Historical accident?
- johnisgood 5y agoThey lace everything with fentanyl in the US, I just dunno why. Is it actually cheaper?! If so, why? They put this into Xanax bars (alprazolam). Why? I expect fentanyl to be more expensive than alprazolam. It actually is in Europe. How common are accidental fentanyl overdoses in the US vs. Europe?
- DougN7 5y agoThe people that do this are already amoral, but you’d think they’d stop simply because killing your customers is bad for business. Hard to understand their motivation.
- johnisgood 5y agoI do not know why they do it. Is it even a thing in Europe? If it is, I have not heard of it, whereas I hear about this in the US every single day.
- Turing_Machine 5y agoVast amounts of fentanyl have been flooding into the United States from the so-called "Golden Triangle" in Southeast Asia, which has been producing heroin for many decades. Fentanyl is a synthetic drug with a much simpler structure than morphine or heroin. It is also 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. The former heroin producers in that region have noted that a) because it's synthetic you don't need any gigantic and easy-to-spot opium poppy fields and b) being 50 times more powerful makes it far easier to smuggle than an equivalent amount of heroin would be.