If a dot of fentanyl can kill you, how do we use it in medicine, and how do people get addicted?

Question

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

Answer 1

Medical tools are very precise, and there’s a reason professions like anesthesiologists who measure out the doses of drugs for stuff like this get paid a handsome salary. A single mistake in jobs like that can kill a patient.