A new lethal drug has surfaced in a number of communities across the country. This drug, Fentanyl, a powerful narcotic pain killer, is being combined with the street version of either cocaine or heroin. This drug combination has been identified as the root cause of hundreds of fatal and nonfatal overdoses across the Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic Regions of the United States. The minor effect is addiction.
Fentanyl is 50-100 times more powerful than morphine and at least 50 times more powerful than heroin. It is highly addictive and fatally dangerous. Fentanyl is a central nervous system depressant and intensifies the effects of alcohol. Drinking alcohol while taking Fentanyl alone, even under medical supervision, is flirting with death.
Substance abusers (addicts) taking uncontrolled hits of two separate downers (one 50 times more powerful than heroin), with their compromised physical health, can simply stop breathing and die.
The primary markets have included Chicago (IL), Detroit (MI), and Philadelphia (PA), Camden (NJ). Overdoses linked to Fentanyl have been reported in areas of Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In its prescription form, Fentanyl is known as Actiq®, Duragesic®, and Sublimaze®. Medically, Fentanyl is used for chronic, uncontrolled pain, as with cancer patients. Fentanyl skin patches, used by patents in extreme pain, may cause serious or life-threatening breathing difficulties. Fentanyl skin patches can be habit-forming, leading to higher rates of addiction, whether or not heroin is also being used.
An intravenous dose of Fentanyl Hydrochloride, medically, for pain relief is approximately 45 micrograms (a grain of salt is approximately 60 micrograms). A user of a Fentanyl-Heroin combination can easily become a victim of a small error in diluting, or cutting Fentanyl, which leads to a fatal overdose. Addiction is definitely not the worst effect of Fentanyl abuse.
Street Names For Fentanyl Products:
Apache, China Girl, China White, Dance Fever, Drop Dead, Friend, Goodfella, Jackpot, Murder 8, TNT, Tango and Cash. Suicide Packets, Perc-O-Pop’s.
Lollipop’s are a street term for Actiq® (raspberry-flavored lozenge attached to a handle).
Effects of Direct Fentanyl Use:
- Mood changes
- Euphoria
- Dysphoria (feeling acutely hopeless, uncomfortable, and unhappy)
- Drowsiness
- Depressed breathing
- Depressed cough reflex
- Constricted pupils
- Nausea,
- Vomiting
- Postural Syncope (blood pressure drops when standing up)
Effects of Fentanyl Skin Patch Use:
- Abdominal pain
- Agitation
- Anorexia
- Anxiety
- Confusion
- Constipation
- Depression
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness
- Dry mouth
- Hallucinations
- Headache
- Impaired or interrupted breathing
- Indigestion
- Itching
- Shortness of breath
- Sleepiness
- Sweating
- Urinary retention
- Weakness
Side Effects Of Fentanyl Skin Patches Use:
- Headache
- Mood changes
- Nervousness
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Shaking hands that you cannot control
- Pain, burning, tingling, or numbness in the hands or feet
- Hiccups
- Stomach pain
- Gas
- Back pain
- Difficulty urinating
- Skin irritation, redness, itching, swelling, or blisters at the area where the patch is worn
- Flu-like symptoms
- Sore throat
Long-term use of synthetic opioids, regardless of the way they are used, depletes the body’s natural supply of endorphins and dopamine, producing prolonged depression. Evidence suggests that with chronic synthetic opioid use, the brain’s dopamine receptors can be permanently damaged. Physical addiction is a possible byproduct of the medical use of Fentanyl.
Fentanyl products are most commonly used by intravenous administration, but like heroin, they may also be smoked or snorted. And like heroin use, addiction is at the end of the road.
Finally, the following symptoms are an indication that the abuser has gone too far:
- Heartbeat that is slower or faster than normal
- Chest pain
- Rash
- Seizure
Drugs that depress the Central Nervous System, like Fentanyl, heroin and alcohol actually slow down the body’s natural processes that keep all of us alive. This means that chronic use (addiction) or mixing Fentanyl with heroin and/or alcohol, is a certain death sentence. All three chemicals are downers and use of them as described above slows down the body processes needed to keep us alive. Read those lists above once again. What a dangerous, nasty drug this is!
You have the right to give this report away freely. You may use it as a bonus item on your website, email it to your list and distribute it as you wish, as long as you do not sell it, claim authorship or change it in any way, including the author’s resource box below.
Pat Graham is the author of the eBook: “Child Drug Addicts – Save Them While You Can”
Get a copy at www.ChildDrugAddicts.com …plus free articles and more information.
© 2011 by Pat Graham – All Rights Reserved
To download a pdf copy of this article please CLICK HERE.
