What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful drug that has been used for decades as a painkiller. Because of its high potential to cause addiction, it has primarily been used to relieve severe pain, such as from advanced cancer or after serious surgery.

Fentanyl is in the same class of drugs as painkillers like morphine or oxycodone and the illegal drug heroin. Those drugs, called opioids, are primarily products of the opium poppy. Some, like heroin and morphine, are directly derived from opium. Others, like oxycodone, are semisynthetic, meaning created in a laboratory from a natural substance.

Fentanyl is 100 percent created in a lab and fully synthetic.

No plant products are needed to make fentanyl, which means it can be created anywhere that lab chemicals can be obtained. This has made it easy for drug-trafficking organizations to manufacture it in illicit labs for distribution as a street drug. In 2013, distribution of fentanyl began skyrocketing in the United States, with resultant overdose deaths increasing from that point forward.

HOW IS FENTANYL USED?

As a pharmaceutical drug, fentanyl can be applied to the skin in a patch, administered as a very low-dosage pill or given in a lozenge, or “lollipop,” that slowly dissolves. There are also sprays used under the tongue or in the nose. Liquid fentanyl may be injected.

Any of these forms of fentanyl can be misused. Patches can be cut up and placed under the tongue or the contents squeezed out and swallowed.

Illicit forms of fentanyl are often found in fake prescription pills, any one of which may be fatal. Powdered fentanyl can be dissolved for injection or for smoking in a glass pipe. Nonpharmaceutical fentanyl can also be added to eyedrops, nasal spray or small squares of blotter paper that users place in their mouths.

Because fentanyl can be combined with methamphetamine* or cocaine, it may be snorted, smoked or injected, with users unaware they are taking fentanyl.

An increasing number of illegal vape products and marijuana are also being laced† with fentanyl, which can be lethal.

* Methamphetamine: a dangerous drug that disrupts the nervous system, often known as meth or crystal meth

† Lace: to add a small amount of a substance to

WHY IS FENTANYL SO DANGEROUS?

Two factors make fentanyl dangerous and deadly. One is its incredible potency. It is as much as 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. As little as two milligrams of pure fentanyl, which is only a few grains, can be a fatal dose.

The other factor is that people may not even know they are taking fentanyl. It is often mixed with illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. An unknowing user can unexpectedly overdose on fentanyl.

Powdered fentanyl is often pressed into fake pills that look like real prescription drugs. In 2023, law enforcement personnel in the United States seized more than 80 million counterfeit pills containing fentanyl from the black market.

STREET NAMES
Apache
China Girl
China Town
China White
Dance Fever
Drop Dead
Fetty
Friend
Goodfellas
Great Bear
He-Man
Jackpot
King Ivory
Lethal Injection
Murder 8
Poison
Tango & Cash
TNT

FAKE PILLS: ONE PILL CAN KILL

See Drugs & Their Addictions