Fentanyl Kills 1,000 Americans

It's a pain medication that is 100 times more potent than morphine.

Its properties are very similar to heroin, and despite the fact that it has legitimate medical uses, it is every bit as dangerous as the heroin available on the street. Recently, there have been numerous deaths around the country from heroin mixed with Fentanyl. And there have been many deaths from Fentanyl alone.

More than 1,000 Americans died in 6 cities between 2005 and 2007 from overdosing on nonpharmaceutical Fentanyl (NPF), in the biggest ever epidemic of overdoses involving illegally produced versions of the painkiller. Health officials predict there will be further outbreaks of NPF overdose because the illegal narcotic is easier and cheaper to produce than heroin.

The figures are being reported by the "US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

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Illicitly manufactured nonpharmaceutical Fentanyl (NPF) is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. It is a synthetic opioid and classed by the US authorities as a narcotic.

The findings of the CDC and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation showed that between 2005 and 2007, a total of 1,013 deaths occurred in six US jurisdictions; the largest NPF epidemic to date.

This is nearly 10 times higher than an epidemic in the 1980s when 110 people died of fatal overdoses of different Fentanyl analogs.

The largest number of deaths were in metropolitan Chicago (349), Philadelphia (269), and Detroit (230). The other areas were St. Louis, Missouri, and the states of Delaware and New Jersey.

Emergency medical staff said some of the victims were found with the needle still stuck in their arms. The drug was so powerful that they died before completing the injection.

The authorities decided to carry out the investigation after receiving a number of reports of overdoses linked to NPF. In April 2006 increases in overdoses among illegal drug users were reported which triggered similar reports in other jurisdictions, which had been discovered earlier but falsely attributed to heroin overdose until urine samples of some of the dead showed traces of Fentanyl.

The CDC suggested that although the number of NPF-related deaths fell substantially in 2007, they predict further epidemics of NPF overdoses are likely because the drug is easier and cheaper to produce than heroin.

Deaths related to heroin and other illicit drugs are well documented in the US. From 1999 to 2005, the figure went up by 87.5 per cent, from 4.0 to 7.5 per 100,000 of the population (deaths from unintentional drug poisoning, mostly linked to pharmaceutical and/or nonpharmaceutical drugs).

The CDC said their report had four limitations:

1. The figures could be under-reported because only six jurisdictions were reported.

2. There is no standard toxicology definition of cause of death for fatal drug overdoses.

3. Some of the deaths could be misclassified as NPF when they were really pharmaceutical Fentanyl-related deaths. (i.e. legal use)

4. Finally, in addition to Fentanyl, other substances may have contributed to the overdoses, including alcohol.

The agency also said there was a need to develop or expand:

• National standards for toxicologic testing and classifying cause of death in drug overdose and poisoning.

• Professional standards for referring overdose surivivors for addiction treatment and education, such as those that exist for suicide survivors.

• Public health programs to help drug users get treatment, be educated about risks of overdose, and learn ways to avoid and deal with overdose.

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