The American opioid crisis

For all parents to know 😎

The American opioid crisis Part 1 

 There have been 3 opioid crisis waves in America. The first was the 2000-2012 oxytcotin wave. This epidemic was created by pharmacy companies pushing pain pills on customers for money stating they weren’t addictive knowing full well they were. ( that company was fined 6 billion dollars) Oxi is now illegal in America and many other countries around the world. 

 The second wave 2010-2017 was the heroin, percocet and Xanax with other opioid drug bases this came after oxi was made illegal in America. 

 The third wave 2015- now is the fentanyl wave. Fentanyl is something that was originally designed in pharmacies for anesthesiologists in hospitals to use to put you under for operations. 

Unfortunately street fentanyl is now a thing and it’s made in street labs, its highly addictive but also extremely dangerous and deadly, 2mcg can kill someone it’s mixed into every street drug available, from weed to meth, to cocaine and heroin even right down to party pills and fake medication pills. A lot of people who are taking these drugs have no idea there is fentanyl even in them or that these pills could kill them. People taking street drugs these days are playing Russian roulette except with their lives. This opioid crisis affects everyone, it doesn’t care about your race, financial status, gender or what class you come from , these fentanyl laced drugs are affecting everyone from every walk of life. Most of the fentanyl coming into America is coming from china via the black market and dark web and arriving thru the postal services. A lot of the people making the street fentanyl have no idea what they are doing and some of the new versions of fentanyl are called designer drugs. In other words fentanyl is the base drug but they have added other chemicals and ingredients to give it a “signature” to create these drugs making them legal according to the DIA ( drug informance agency) they have been adding these new designer drugs to their list of controlled substances. Designer drugs - fentanyl based Carfentanil ( or carfentanyl) is the most potent of all the fentanyl based drugs in the world. It’s odorless white powder is 10,000 times stronger than morphine 100 times stronger than fentanyl. It was designed as a tranquilizer to knock out large animals like elephants, rhinos and hippos. It wad never intended for human use ever, but this has come about for illegal use usually mixed in with heroin for heroin users or taken by those who think it’s heroin it’s extremely lethal. ( this drug takes 4 or more shots of Narcan to bring the person back around ) WHO ( world health organization) endorsed a recommendation in 2017 for strict controls of carfentanil. In 2024 – 24 people in Argentina died from altered cocaine it had been laced with carfentanil, - death was instant. It also comes in a tablet and spray form. It is largely believed to be concocted in China in drug labs, its so deadly those that are making it or handling it wear full body protective radioactive suits. Drug dogs can’t be used to sniff the drug out cos one sniff will kill them. In Moscow they use the drug as an assassination drug as 2mcg of it will kill 100,000 people. Furanylfentanyl ( also known as China white) It’s not pure but it’s 50x stronger than heroin. This drug was linked to a string of overdoses in the United States. The DIA has added it to their list of controlled substances in 2017. It has severe side effects which include, itching , nausea, and respiratory distress ( which causes overdoses) cos the high doesn’t last long people who use it mixed in heroin tend to overdose by injecting more and more. If china white is sold pure it is lethal and will automatically kill you, people who mix it with cocaine will have sudden death, heroin users experience the loss of breathing , as it stops you breathing that part of your brain that tells you to breathe is not working so you die. Designer drugs that contain fentanyl substances required more narcan ( naloxone) than actual fentanyl. In the past decade 400,00 Americans have died of synthetic opioid overdoses directly related to fentanyl. Since 2000 more than 1 million Americans have died as a direct result of fentanyl laced opioid. Even when a strain of fentanyl is identified and banned it doesn’t take long for a new strain to show up and on the streets, despite banning these new drugs new strains of them are being made and are out on the street within a year. Overdoses from fentanyl are extremely high in one state they had 26 different overdoses in an hour this takes up resources that are meant to be used for other emergencies like fire, cops and ambulances. Firefighters are stating they go to more overdose calls than they do actual fires. Some cities have set up mobile emergency rooms ( MASH style hospitals ) so actual hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with the number of drug overdoses coming into their emergency rooms. In 2015 9,500 people died from fentanyl overdoses by 2019 that number had jumped to 36,359, of those deaths 3040 of them were people aged 15-24yrs old. In 2023 over 70,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses ( that’s more than the total number of deaths in the Vietnam war) last year 300 people were dying a day in America from fentanyl overdoses that’s a total number of 109,500 in a year. Communities all over America are facing a serious epidemic of overdoses due to fentanyl. Many places in America and Canada have needle exchange places where the user can go and get clean needles in exchange for dirty used ones, this helps reduce the risk of needle drug users getting a variety of infections and blood borne viruses like HIV and AIDS. In Fresno, California the needle exchange is run like a market site it’s open for 2 hours on a Saturday by one registered doctor and a group of volunteers, they collect on average 30,000 needles. A lot of these needle users are your average normal everyday person, they have nice cars, work in full time jobs, or have a couple of jobs, they are wives, father’s, mother’s, husband’s, grandparents, they are pillars of the community, they’re even students at university or tech colleges , they aren’t just your shady homeless drug user on the street. Kids have been buying drugs online thru a social media chat site called ‘snapchat’ by using certain emoji’s they can obtain the drugs they want and the person selling them will deliver them right or the door or the mailbox the drug dealer is not some older shady person they are usually a fellow classmate so it doesn’t look like they are getting anything illegal to their parents, these kids obtaining and selling the drugs are sports players, the popular kids, the average Joe and Jane you pass in the hallway. These kids can be ordering drugs on the couch while watching a movie or TV with their family and the family can be none the wiser. 98% of parents were completely unaware their child was on drugs or that they even knew how to get them. They aren’t just popping pills anymore for a regular high they are popping fentanyl laced pills making the risk of overdosing 100% higher. They are also crushing up these pills and snorting them. They are looking for the euphoric feeling of getting high unfortunately cos there is no way of knowing how much or what % of the drug has fentanyl in it they can take a pill and be overdosing or dead in less than 5 mins. Fentanyl shuts down the part of the brain that tells you to breathe causing your lungs and body to stop fighting for air. From when someone starts overdosing to when they need Narcan is 4 mins max after that time if Narcan isn’t given CPR is started with chest compressions and a mouth breather tube ( so the person who is helping the overdosing person doesn’t come in contact with the fentanyl and overdose as well), if CPR is not successful a person can die. If someone is overdosing and no one is around to help and no Narcan is given a that person will be dead in 5 mins. This is why in America and Canada Narcan kits are vitally important not just in households but on each person as well. Everyone carries a Narcan kit wherever they go. A Narcan kit overseas contains 4 nasal shots of Narcan and 2 vials and a needle to give intramuscular shots if needed. NARCAN ( NALOXONE) It’s an opioid antagonist, a medicine used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioid. Mainly to help with the breathing especially if someone is overdosing. Narcan is especially good for those that are overdosing on fentanyl. All families have Narcan kits in America and Canada including all volunteers on the street, all workplaces, all the homeless, including the drug users, all emergency service workers, needle exchange places, all shops and schools and all safe spaces. This is to stop someone from overdosing and potentially dying. A lot of the addicts say they have helped other addicts from dying simply by giving them Narcan from their kits, all these kits can be restocked and refilled at a variety of places so they can always have their kits stocked and ready to use. One user said he saved 4 people in a week by just administering his Nacan nasal spray, on the street he said we look out for each other, because we have no one else looking out for us. The euphoric feeling people get from the drug is unfortunately why they can’t seem to stop besides it being highly addictive they keep chasing the high until it eventually kills them. Even when they know there is fentanyl in the drug and they could die that isn’t enough for them to want to stop. Fentanyl is 100x more powerful than morphine 4 grams of fentanyl can kill over 1500 people that’s like 4 packets of Café sugar. Drug makers ( like the Mexican Cartel ) are using pill pressers to make these dangerous drugs look like prescription pills ( like Xanax and percocet ( also known as blue 30's) so the user thinks they are taking prescription drugs but 100% of these drugs are all laced with fentanyl . The fentanyl that’s added isn’t measured its just chucked in to the mixture so some of these drugs have little to no fentanyl and some of these drugs have medium to all being straight fentanyl . A lot of these pulls have 15% or more fentanyl which is an automatic overdose if taken. 1 pill can cost $10 ( so it’s considered a cheap high) a pill if used by one person will last a day. Once they build up tolerance they will move on to 2-3 pills some end up on 20-30 pills a day due to long term use and tolerance build up. But it’s still cheaper than most other drugs which is why pills are a teenagers choice of drugs when they start. Taking fentanyl laced drugs is like playing the worse kind of Russian roulette you can play it’s like having all the chambers but one full. You and your group may all take the same pills but cos no one knows how much fentanyl or if the pills have fentanyl in them. You might live and the rest might overdose and die if not revived with Narcan in time. A lot of the pills the teens are taking are known as M30’s ( blue 30’s or fake Percocet) these pills are all fentanyl laced each with an unknown quantity of fentanyl since it’s not actually measured into the ingredients it’s just dumped in and mixed up so each pill has an unknown quantity of fentanyl some have a small amount which gives the taker an euphoric feeling some are straight fentanyl which means when taken the person dies. Touching or having 100% fentanyl powder on your skin even a tiny amount can cause your body to overdose, a policeman putting fentanyl powder into evidence was revived by the evidence lock up person with Narcan after a slight amount touched his skin during the evidence procedure, he was admitted to hospital to be observed and was released later that day. Fentanyl powder 100% is pure and powerful and extremely deadly and people crossing the border from Canada and Mexico are bringing it in through many forms but the recent ones found by border security is sugar packets and icing sugar bags because fentanyl looks exactly like that. The Mexican cartel is now the biggest supplier and producer of fentanyl laced drugs. They are also the main supplier of drugs around the world 99% with Columbia being the other 1% all of the drugs coming to New Zealand come from the Mexican Cartel which means our drugs coming in will all be laced with fentanyl. The face of addiction isn’t the homeless person anymore with no teeth and sores on their face living on the street, the face of addiction is anyone you meet at your job, at the supermarkets, in High school, the kids or people next door, the people down the road, the rich and wealthy suburbs. The face of addiction as we once knew it has changed dramatically.