Fentanyl: A Powerful, But Deadly Opioid Painkiller

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic that is used to treat patients with severe pain. It also manages pains after surgery. On the other hand, the drug is a powerful high that is easy to be an overdose on. This leads to death.

CNN reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Centers for Disease Center are trying to stop this deadly drug from taking more lives. They considered it as another national health crisis. The experts say that Fentanyl can be 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin.

Fentanyl surge prompts R.I. health warning, via @LynnArditi. https://t.co/xrB8Y9Oj6R pic.twitter.com/0OojEs7h2A

— Providence Journal (@projo) May 10, 2016

Natasha Butler was devastated upon hearing from the doctors that her son, Jerome, 15, died from the overdose of fentanyl. She had never heard of fentanyl before it killed her son. She said an acquaintance gave her son a fentanyl. Her son thought it was a pill of Norco, which is a less potent opioid-based painkiller. She further said that the pill had the fentanyl in it and they killed her son.

The opioid epidemic: @UCDavishealth is on the frontline handling fentanyl overdoses https://t.co/Xlm8ZZ8IHn pic.twitter.com/PajqrFxo4z — UC Davis Health (@UCDavisHealth) May 1, 2016

There were actually 10 people including Jerome Butler died from fentanyl-laced pills in just 12 days in Sacramento, California, in March. Reports said that there are over 50 people, who are overdosed on the said pill in the first three months yet survived. Other fentanyl-related overdoses and deaths are emerging across the country.

Fentanyl with brand names such as Actiq, Sublimaze, Haldid, Lazanda, Fentora, Durogesic, and others is synthesized by Paul Janssen in 1960. It is first used to treat breakthrough pains and commonly used as the pain reliever. On the other hand, deaths have resulted from the improper medical use of fentanyl.