Fentanyl

Fentanyl Latest News

The United States recently revoked and denied visas to “certain business executives and corporate leadership” from India for their alleged involvement in trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals.

About Fentanyl

• It is a potent synthetic opioid like morphine or heroin.
• It is both a prescribed drug and a drug that is at times made and used illegally. 
• It is made entirely in laboratories, with no natural ingredients. 
• It was developed as a prescription medicine for treating severe pain, such as pain after surgery. 
• When used as prescribed, it is also very effective in treating cancer pain or other types of severe chronic pain that don’t respond to other pain medicines.
• It is also used with other medicines just before or during an operation to help the anesthetic (numbing medicine) work better.
• It is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic.
• It acts in the central nervous system (CNS) or brain to relieve pain. 
• Some of its side effects are also caused by actions in the CNS, such as drowsiness or dizziness.
• Fentanyl is addictive. Like other opioids, repeated use causes changes in brain activity that cause people to continue using it even when they experience harmful effects. 
• Fentanyl is cheap for drug dealers to make into a street drug, compared to other opioids, but it is more powerful. 
• Because only a few grains is enough to kill, fentanyl is causing high rates of overdose and overdose deaths.

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What are Opioids?

• The term “opioids” includes compounds that are extracted from the poppy plant (Papaver somniferum) as well as semisynthetic and synthetic compounds with similar properties that can interact with opioid receptors in the brain.
• Opioids are commonly used for the treatment of pain and include medicines such as morphine, fentanyl, and tramadol.
• Their non-medical use, prolonged use, misuse, and use without medical supervision can lead to opioid dependence and other health problems.
• Due to their pharmacological effects, opioids can cause breathing difficulties, and opioid overdose can lead to death.
• Apart from fentanyl, other well-known opioids include oxycodone, morphine, codeine, and heroin.

Source: NIE