The horrifying reality of heroin's cousin and why it's killing so many
The latest news ... recent seizure of 100 pounds of fentanyl had enough doses to poison the entire population of New York City and New Jersey.
What is this drug that is killing so many people? Fentanyl, known as the elephant tranquilizer because of its insanely powerful effect, is 50 times more powerful than heroin. It is hitting the streets as a heroin boost and it's being used to produce counterfeit oxycodone. And it's leaving a hideous path of death of unsuspecting users.
Whenever you hear of a celebrity that has suddenly died of overdose recently, fentanyl is right there in the mix ... Prince and Tom Petty, the two most prominent lately.
Here's why ... on the left is a lethal dose of heroin. On the right, a lethal dose of fentanyl.
Heroin and fentanyl look the same and most times people do not know what they are taking. As the director of the State Police forensic lab in NH stated, "You're injecting yourself with a loaded gun."
The stats are that 43,000 Americans died from opiod overdoses in 2016. Those are the latest numbers from the Center for Disease Control. When the numbers come out for 2017, they will be much worse than that. Opiod overdose deaths have now overtaken gun deaths in the US.
This epidemic has reached crisis proportions and in my next blog on this issue, I'll dive into the reasons why opiod addiction has skyrocked in the last few years and also how bitcoin plays into this story.
The short story is that Fentanyl pills are being sold to customers in the US from China to the tune of $800 million over the last two years and Chinese sellers used bitcoin as their preferred method of payment because of anonymity. As proponents of cryptocurrencies, what are our thoughts on this?
I did not know the fentanyl drug, I'm impressed by how dangerous it is. In the darkweb Silkroad was used as a platform for drug trafficking, I believe that bitcoin as a common currency can be used for good things and bad things, sincerely it is even more transparent because transactions are recorded in the blockchain instead of cash transactions that are difficult to trace
That's a great point. Bitcoin had received a bad rap because of the darkweb and silkroad especially. It has been able to overcome such negativity as of late. People will always find ways to manipulate something for their purposes. I believe there's much more good than bad that will come from cryptos!
exactly, blockchain technology is here to improve many things in this world. But in the end it will always depend on the good use that is made of it.
Awesome article! I'm a Substance Abuse Counselor down in the Metro Miami area and we got kids falling out all over the place because of this shit. Dealers can exponentially increase their cut by using Fentanyl but do not have the slightest clue as to what does or does not comprise a lethal dose. We are handing out Narcan on the street corners down here so good job on getting the word out!
This is one of the scariest things I have ever seen. You have an insanely difficult and oftentimes thankless job and this Fentanyl crap makes it almost impossible. But you are saving lives so please keep on. Getting the word out is key so I'll definitely do what I can!
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I just lost a friend last week to this trash
I am so sorry. This is so insane and sad and there is a helplessness that makes it so scary.
right its horrible I just I can keep those of us still here informed and get them help,put down the needle and go smoke a joint
Exactly