Fentanyl Forever

Common industrial chemical precursors.

This focus on China as the origin and Mexico as the manufacturing site for fentanyl is mistaken. Since we put pressure on China, Indian companies have gotten involved in the precursor business. Since we put pressure on Mexico … who knows, but fentanyl labs don’t explode or poison their operators the way methamphetamine does.

Cocaine, heroin, and marijuana start with plants. Fentanyl and methamphetamine start in chemical plants. Peter is right about this one - the only hope we might have is demand reduction, and that has been happening. People who can’t leave opiates alone get buried on the regular, check the report and images that follow the video.

A friend of a friend stuck her head down the fentanyl bunny hole a couple years ago. Earlier this week she was found at the bottom. She follows in the footsteps of Kevin Gallagher, Jamie Cochran, Adrian Lamo, and others. No parent should ever have to bury a child, and yet here we are again.

The full report for these graphs is here. Drug overdose rates have quadrupled since the turn of the century.