When It Comes To Painkillers, Only Go For The Real Thing
In this time of a “not recession”, you have to do what you can in order to pinch pennies. But one thing you can’t afford to do is take painkillers from questionable sources. One of the most popular painkillers in recent years is fentanyl (a memeber of the always memorable opiod family). Although usually given to cancer patients and those suffering chronic excrutiating back pain, it sometimes is given to migraineurs or for othe painful headaches. Since there is such a demand for fentanyl, there are those who will exploit that need.
What We Know
This demand has lead to 1,013 deaths in the last two years, says a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of these deaths occurred around the cities of Camden, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. These deaths weren’t from fentanyl, but from “fake fentanyl”, which often was mixed with cocaine. As you can imagine, the kick from this mix was quite powerful. The CDC reports estimates the high is “30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin.”
What We Don’t Know
The CDC also notes that they don’t know “the total picture” when it comes to how many people die from fake fentanyl, as the report only covered two states (Delaware and New Jersey) and several cities. It does not cover all fake fentanyl deaths in America.
The report also does not distinquish between those who were taking the fake fentanyl as a more affordable form of pain medication as oppposed to those who were drug addicts. Because of the increibly ridiculous cost of heath care in America, I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of those deaths were from people in pain who were self-medicating.
It is thought that the number of fake fentanyl deaths dropped sharply once a Teluco, Meixco factory was shut down. But chances are there are many more illegal factories in place. Although it may be tempting to buy street drugs for pain management, you just can’t be sure of what your drug is going to be made out of.
Perhaps you’re better off robbing a pharmacy. (Just a joke, folks! But becoming more of a possibility as health care costs in America continue to rise).
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
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