A New and More Dangerous Drug Market Requires a New Approach
<p>This tragedy has continued to play out for decades, but <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3117.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">has worsened sharply since 2014</a> when illegally manufactured, highly potent fentanyl was introduced to American drug markets. Many of the same traits that make fentanyl an attractive drug for illegal suppliers and Mexican traffickers can make it a death sentence to users: As a synthetic opioid, fentanyl is not made from poppy, but chemicals sourced from large industrial chemical sectors in China and India. It is cheap and easy to produce. By weight, fentanyl is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/stopoverdose/fentanyl" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">up to 50 times more potent than heroin</a>, meaning very little is needed to meet America’s demand for opioids. Perhaps only a few pickup-truck loads of pure fentanyl are needed to supply our country for an entire year. Dealers and traffickers are substituting more-expensive (and laborious to produce) heroin for fentanyl; some are even pressing a tiny amount of fentanyl into pills made to look like actual prescription medications, potentially misleading those who take drugs and leading to deadly results.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/rand-corporation/a-new-and-more-dangerous-drug-market-requires-a-new-approach-e32be6408dcb"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>