Prescription Drug abuse alone is dangerous. Every day people use prescription drugs in ways they were not prescribed, often becoming addicted, sometimes ending in fatal overdoses. Illegal Drug abuse is equally as dangerous. Addiction and fatal overdose are often the outcome. A new trend has put these two together and is causing a rash of fatal drug overdoses. Heroin has become more popular and it is being laced with the powerful prescription drug, fentanyl with disastrous outcomes.
Fentanyl is a powerful pain reliever used in hospitals, given to people with chronic pain, and used in Cancer patients who are in the last stages of life. It is also used as an anesthetic. It is more potent then morphine and can kill instantly because it inhibits breathing. Drug dealers are lacing heroin with fentanyl and marketing it as a “more intense high”. The problem is, it is causing an epidemic of overdoses. Just a tiny bit of this heroin laced with fentanyl can kill in minutes. The users are not aware of how much stronger this heroin is and use the same amount that they have in the past, which is far too much when it is laced with fentanyl.
As it has become harder to get prescription drugs due to the FDA rules and regulations, prescription drug addicts have turned to heroin. Illicit street drugs are dangerous on their own, but the fentanyl laced heroin has been causing epidemic overdoses. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Michigan have all had a significant number or overdoses this year. The police are trying to get the word out that the heroin that is laced with fentanyl is more potent than regular heroin and a very small amount of it can be deadly. They are also warning first responders who may rush to aid in an emergency to use caution as fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin and just a small amount can cause a significant problem. As law enforcement works to stop the dealers who are selling this heroin under the street names “Thera Flu” and “bud light”, they want the word out that this deadly heroin is causing epidemic deaths and is extremely dangerous.