Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid drug used for analgesic ( pain relief ) and anesthetic purposes in both human and veterinary medicine , in addition to treating patients with severe or chronic pain . Launched in 1963 by Janssen Pharmaceuticals , founded by Belgian Dr . Paul Janssen , fentanyl is the most widely used anesthetic in the world . 1 It is estimated that fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin . 2 It is , therefore , a particularly interesting substance for drug traffickers because it takes very little to produce a high , making it a profitable substitution and a cheaper option compared to other opioids . It is also relatively inexpensive to produce and easy to transport . However , fentanyl is extremely dangerous and results in fatal overdoses . The dosage is measured in micrograms ; as a result , it is hard to properly control dosage and impossible to differentiate a lethal dose from an effective dose by sight . In fact , two milligrams ( mg ) of fentanyl can be lethal , and according to the Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ), almost half of tested fentanyl pills contain at least 2 mg , and some can even reach as much as twice the lethal dose .
ACAMS Today June – August 2023 81