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

If they’re administering a drug in hospital, they can put in an IV. If you mix a ‘dot’ of painkiller with a big bag of saline, you can trickle that into a person’s arm so it takes hours for the whole dot to go in. You can get really fine control and give small, steady doses that way, and unlike with pills you can stop the trickle whenever you need to.