Fentanyl presents a lucrative business opportunity for drug traffickers because it is incredibly powerful in small amounts and is easy to produce. Fentanyl drove a 73% increase in synthetic opioid deaths in the US from 2014 to 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rates of death from synthetic opioids has increased across all demographic groups and regions. “What’s occurring in the US and Canada is because of the overprescription of opioids originally, and then the clampdown on the legal supply,” Douglas said. Because fentanyl is a synthetic, all that is needed to produce it is a lab.

Source: The Guardian August 18, 2017 20:15 UTC