AST April 2018 Magazine AST April Magazine (3.30.18) | Page 55

FENTANYL CHEMICAL
Volume 22
RELEVANCE
April 2018 Edition
Opioids are medically used
for pain relief.
One of the most common
opioids is fentanyl (N-(1-(2-
phenethyl)-4-piperidinyl-N-
phenyl-propanamide), the
effects of which are similar to
heroin.
Fentanyl is listed as a Sched-
ule II drug under the United
States Code (USC) Title 21
Controlled Substance Act and
is also controlled internation-
ally under Schedule I of the
Single Convention on Narcot-
ic Drugs of 1961.
Direct syringe injection performed on GC-MS
Misuse is on a significant rise due to the euphoric effect
felt by the user. The ease of access has turned it into a glob-
al epidemic.
(Learn More as MSNBC examines the cause of the deadliest drug
crisis in American history.)
It is a favored painkiller because it is fast-acting.
(Opioid overdose emergency department visits rose 30% in all
According to the Centers for Disease Control parts of the U.S. from July 2016 through September 2017.)
and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl is up to 100
times more potent than morphine and many Because of its high potency and the fact that users don’t
know how much to administer, fentanyl has led to a sig-
times that of heroin.
nificant surge in overdose deaths.
In the 1980s, fentanyl became infamous as a street drug.
By the 2000s, drug dealers began adding fentanyl to her- According to the CDC, “Overdose deaths involving syn-
oin to create an even more intense high that onsets very thetic opioids other than methadone, which includes
quickly.
fentanyl, increased by 72% from 2014 to 2015. 53