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
Fentanyl is a drug that happens to have a similar shape as particular chemicals, called a neurotransmitter, your body uses to signal itself. The neurotransmitters are released by your body in different places to signal different things and those places in your body respond when they get the signal.
When you take fentanyl, the fentanyl spreads throughout the body and signals several different places all at once.
Key to your question the fentanyl goes to your:
Brain and spinal chord and those places respond by lessening pain perception.
Other parts of the brain respond to fentanyl by releasing another neurotransmitter called dopamine which leads to a feeling of euphoria.
The brain stems responds to fentanyl by slowing breathing and heart rate.
So, how is it that we use Fentanyl as a painkiller, an addictive and euphoric drug, and a deadly drug? Because Fentanyl is shaped like a neurotransmitter the body already uses and taking it as a drug makes your whole body receive lots of neurotransmitters at once. The different parts do all their stuff at once, including lessen pain, euphoria, and possibly death from heart or breathing stopping.
In a clinical setting, the anesthesiologist carefully doses the fentanyl based on your weight and sex and other things so you perceive less pain but keep breathing. In a drug dealer situation, the drug dealer may mix fentanyl into the drugs without the buyer knowing: it’s cheap and strong.
The buyers may not know how much fentanyl they are getting and may be varying levels of tolerant to the drug. Some may die as their tolerance is too low or they take too much.
Ironically, when people OD on particular drugs, other addicts tend to buy *more* of the drugs believing they are stronger.
And give how Fentanyl works the stronger it is the more euphoria and pain relief and the more likely you are to die from it. So the addicts are not totally wrong.
Fun fact: Narcan/Naloxone stick more readily to neurotransmitter receptors but don’t signal them. So, the Fenantyl can’t stick to the receptors because the naloxone blocks them, and the effects of opiods cease very quickly.
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