Fentanyl, a powerful drug that is sweeping the United States

” everyone told me”Hey you need to try this, it’s a lot stronger than heroin, it’ll give you the same feeling you got the first time you got high.”. » In 2018, Tom Wolfe is addicted to heroin, lives on the streets of San Francisco, and witnesses the arrival of a new drug in the city: fentanyl. ” I felt a rush of warmth, as if someone had covered me with a blanket, I suddenly felt hot. And all my problems went away, such joy. It was the best high since I first took drugs. »

Two pieces of dead bodies

The effects of fentanyl are impressive both internally and externally. Addicts line the streets, their bodies bent double from the power of the drug, their heads resting on their knees. And for good reason: Fentanyl is a hundred times stronger than morphine, fifty times stronger than heroin, and highly addictive.

The withdrawal from fentanyl is felt only a few hours after taking it. ” The problem is that you have to take it often, and you don’t know how loaded the drug isUnderlines Tom Wolfe. You don’t really know what dose you are taking, so the risk of overdose is very high. »

Indeed, while 200 mg of heroin is lethal, only two mg of fentanyl is sufficient. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the counterfeit pills contain between 0.02 and 5.1 milligrams of fentanyl, twice the lethal dose. A real Russian roulette game. Tom Wolfe assures us, “EBeing addicted to heroin, you can live 25 years, but with fentanyl, because of the risk of overdose, you barely have two years left and you’re dead. »

In San Francisco, US According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of fentanyl overdoses increased by 279% between 2016 and 2021.

Fentanyl instead of heroin

It is often a combination with other drugs that is the reason for the first use of fentanyl, which leads to immediate addiction. That’s how Jackie Berlin’s son Corey, who lives in a suburb near San Francisco, developed a fentanyl addiction a few years ago.

“ He started using drugs when he was in his 20s, and in recent years he became unwittingly addicted to fentanyl as dealers slipped it into the heroin he was taking.She remembers, her voice tight. Since he started fentanyl, his condition has deteriorated much faster than in the years he used heroin or other opioids. » Cory is unable to work, mentions Jackie Berlin, “ Because fentanyl makes you lose consciousness. Street drugs are a cocktail of many drugs, we don’t really know what effect they can have on a person, so it’s impossible for them to get a job. »

So, Corey lives on the streets. ” He must be… well, he believes he must be as close to his dealers as possible because with fentanyl, he starts withdrawing after a few hours. »

Also readFentanyl: Diving into one of the major Mexican cartels

Fentanyl, a legal drug

Before it hits American streets, fentanyl is a pharmaceutical product. Professor Bertrand Monet of the EDHEC Business School has been studying the manufacturing chain of this medicine for many years. ” Basically, it is a perfectly legal painkiller, administered in hospitals around the world, in small doses. But a small portion is diverted from its use by Mexican drug traffickers, who modify it, mixing it with other products to turn it into lozenges. » and the researcher specifies: cartel Don’t talk about fentanyl which is the base product. What they sell is the M30 tablet, which contains fentanyl, but not that much. Drug addicts rarely consume pure fentanyl. Often they mix it with heroin and cocaine, they call it Speedball. Others mix it with a veterinary analgesic, which is tranq. »

The little blue pill led to the financial success of the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest in Mexico. Bertrand Monet managed to contact members of the cartel, and was able to closely observe the various stages of the drug’s development before it was put up for sale on American streets. ” The chain of intermediaries is: First Chinese and Indian intermediaries. These companies are perfectly justified in buying this drug to resell it later. There are not companies that collaborate with the cartels, but within these companies, they bribe certain people in key functions in the export logistics chain, to divert the quantities they need and supply them. This is how it happens in Mexico. »

Once there, the researcher explains, the fentanyl is distributed among the hundred cartel clans that manufacture the drug. “ It’s down to the milligram, the people who do it are chemists. »

China-US negotiations

The United States and China have begun discussions to try to break the chain. A bilateral anti-narcotics working group has been created in line with the November 2023 agreement signed by the Chinese and US presidents. But for the moment, Beijing has only closed one company, and if the Chinese government has blocked some international payments and wants to strengthen its supervision over drug trafficking, this is not enough for Washington. China, for its part, criticizes the United States for being too lax in its fight against drugs, and in its public awareness of synthetic opiates, of which fentanyl is one.

Also readChina and the United States resume talks on fentanyl

Sober for two years, Tom Wolfe returned home to his wife and children. He assures her, ” Never again. But there will always be the fear of falling back into it. When you go into remission, you stay that way forever. I always have to be careful that no untoward incident pushes me back. Staying healthy is a constant task. »

If he could get out of it, this is not the case for everyone, far from it. U.S. In the United States, fentanyl claimed more than 130,000 lives last year and continues to kill an average of 150 people every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.