The Real Reason Fentanyl is So Dangerous

Fentanyl plays a role in more and more opioid overdose deaths. Most fentanyl used ‘on the streets’ starts in China, with precursors shipped to California or Mexico before distribution throughout the US. Fentanyl acts very potently at the same receptors as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone. Reports of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl usually blame potency, but the real reason for fentanyl’s outsized role in overdose is rarely mentioned – at least outside operating rooms. Fentanyl is as ubiquitous in the medical industry as it is on the street, in 50 microgram per cc, sterile vials rather than the small rocks ground up by drug dealers and added to heroin. Operating rooms are full of the stuff, as are dental offices, cardiac cath labs, and colonoscopy suites (why, by the way, do we call rooms used for THAT procedure ‘suites’?). When an anesthesiologist puts morphine into a patient’s IV, the patient’s rate or breathing slows down over a span of about 10 – 15 minutes. The patient keeps breathing, and blood oxygen level might fall slightly if nasal oxygen isn’t provided. But when the anesthesiologist injects fentanyl into the IV, the patient will sometimes stop breathing as soon as the drug hits the brain – in about 20 seconds. That ‘apnea’ occurs when there is no drive to breathe, and results in a fall in blood oxygen levels – hypoxemia – which can trigger cardiac arrest. The diffe...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs