San Francisco , USA– Guess what? Fentanyl is killing more young Americans than COVID-19. That is what statistics are showing, as pointed out in February 2022 by US Congressman Greg Murphy who happens to be a doctor, too.
Fentanyl came into the Filipino public consciousness when some five or six years ago, President Rodrigo Duterte supposedly admitted to using it to combat pain for an ailment. Whatever that was or is, we are not quite sure.
There has been a surge of deaths in the United States due to abuse or overdose of fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that is known to pack a wallop 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine.
Here, fentanyl has quickly and quietly become the leading cause of death among adults ages 18-45. Between April 2020 to April 2021, fentanyl claimed 40,010 lives — resulting in almost twice as many deaths in the 18-45 age range as COVID-19 (21,335), cancer (17,114), car accidents (22,442), and suicide (21,678) respectively.
Congressman Murphy says that a vast majority of fentanyl is manufactured in China, Duterte’s favored country (I don’t know why). The US Drug Enforcement Agency reports that a whooping 80 percent of fentanyl in America comes into their country through the US-Mexico border. It would not be off to speculate that fentanyl is already widespread in the Philippines because of how the former president opened our doors to shady characters and deals.
Fentanyl, Murphy says, is often the supplemental drug of choice for smugglers and dealers, as this is cheaper than heroin. It doesn’t just stop at pure fentanyl. As the US National Institute on Drug Abuse reported, in 75 percent of cocaine deaths and 50 percent of methamphetamine deaths, the drugs were mixed with fentanyl.
According to the National Health Service of UK, this drug is a super strong, synthetic painkiller that is used by hospitals to treat severe pain, for instance, during or after an operation or a serious injury, or pain from cancer. It is recommended for adults, but could also be used for children. It is the drug to go to when “weaker” painkillers have stopped working.
In America, fentanyl is available only on prescription and in various forms: as patches, lozenges, tablets, nasal sprays, or injections. It is addictive and has several side effects such as constipation or feeling sick, sleepy or drowsy.
If it is true that the lord from Davao is hooked on fentanyl, do not be surprised why his face expression was that of someone who hasn’t been able to take a crap for weeks. Moreover, erratic sleep patterns could lead to a distorted sense of reality and bad judgment.
What led me to check on fentanyl, was a column by Justin Phillips in last Sunday’s edition of San Francisco Chronicle who said that the city was able to control, more or less, fatal overdoses of heroin and cocaine in their area by implementing its harm-reduction policy and program where it was clear that war on drugs was not war on drug users. There was no instruction to kill, kill, and kill, but rather to look at users as human victims.
What is making US government leaders stand on their toes these days is the growing presence of fentanyl which Phillips describes as “an insidiously powerful synthetic opioid that overtook the drug supply like an invasive specie.”
Expect the drug lords who, if we look back, came out laughing over the failed drug war in the Philippines. It is business as usual. Powerful and cheap, fentanyl is the dangerous drug we should be on the lookout for.