I’ve always heard that a singular dot of fentanyl can kill you. Yet we use it medically, for pain relief. And many people are addicted to it but stay alive while using. Is there like a different method of using it? How do people use it and not die?
In: Chemistry
Have you ever made a batch of pancakes that you didn’t mix well enough, so you wound up getting a bite with a nasty blot of baking powder in it? The bowl of batter overall had the right amount of baking powder in it, but it wasn’t evenly distributed.
Legal Fentanyl is highly regulated, and manufactured by Fortune 100 companies with a lot to lose, and the resources necessary to ensure consistent mixing. When you get Fentanyl in the OR, your anesthesiologist has a professionally-manufactured ampule of Fentanyl in solution, and if it says 1ug/ml, then she knows that giving you 5ml will deliver 5ug of the active ingredient. This is also how she is able to dose herself exactly once she’s become addicted to it.
Illegal pills containing fentanyl are like the pancake batter. Assuming that the criminal cooks are aiming for a non-lethal dose, and assuming that they know exactly how many pills will come out of a mixing bowl of powder, and assuming they know how to multiply, they’ll multiply the dose they intend to deliver per pill by the number of pills the batch will make, and then put that much Fentanyl in the mixing bowl. They’ll run the mixer for a while, and then make pills out of the batter. Some pills will have about the right dose, some won’t have as much as planned, and a few will be like the bite of baking powder, and those will kill the person who takes them.
https://www.dea.gov/resources/facts-about-fentanyl
Latest Answers