The newly available narcotic, carfentanil drug, is a true nightmare for law enforcement in the United States. It began to occur in Europe, making the problem extremely concerning.
She is blamed by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for a recent rise in overdoses in numerous US states, including Ohio, Florida, and Michigan. Although its existence has lately been revealed in the United Kingdom, this extremely lethal synthetic opioid is still uncommon in Europe.
Elephants and other large animals weighing several tons were the only creatures for which carfentanil was intended to be used as a tranquilizer (buffaloes, rhinos, polar bears, etc.). However, it started showing up in combination with other medications in 2016, which led to multiple overdoses.
Ohio, the hub of Carfentanil drug in America
In light of the present opioid problem in the US, carfentanil is not good news. The number of Americans who prefer heroin to medications that are medically prescribed is increasing. Dealers were forced to turn to synthetic opiates to meet the surge in demand.
Fentanyl, Cocaine, Heroin and Carfentanil sachets.
The State of Ohio became the hub of the carfentanil epidemic in the USA, and federal authorities are still unsure of why and how this happened.
Cincinnati police charged and arrested a couple in late September for selling the substance nearby. On October 15, a federal grand jury indicted two young men from the nearby Rowan County, Kentucky, for orchestrating at least seven overdose deaths. However, Tim Regan, director of the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) Cincinnati office, informed us that there were still no answers as to where this situation originated.
US authorities experienced a similar crisis with “bath salts” nickname given to stimulants made from synthetic cathinones or with K2 or Spice, forms of synthetic cannabis. In these cases, the producers mostly based in China constantly change the chemical composition of the drugs to evade US legislation.
Lethal dose of the narcotic
Lethal dose calculations are not a minor point because if scientists are struggling to agree on the lethal amount,
how are drug traffickers going to achieve “ salable ” doses? “
How many drug dealers have the pharmaceutical grade equipment to do aliquots of carfentanil with enough precision not to kill their customers? asks the editorial writer for the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.
To get an idea of the potency of carfentanil, the chemist took a small sachet with one gram of sugar. She opened it and poured it on the lab table. She pulled apart a few pellets, about two milligrams, with a razor blade. This amount of carfentanil, she said, would be enough to kill 100 people. The whole pack can kill 50,000. When DEA researchers are handling the real substance, they must wear protective clothing and have a “guardian angel” around who can quickly intervene with the overdose antidote. Naloxone, in case something unexpected happens.