5 Wild Things I Learned Analyzing 23,000 Illegal Drugs

3 Fentanyl Is Everywhere

Now it’s time to talk about the unconscious elephant in the room: fentanyl. Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid, but what does that even mean?

Opiates and opioids are two different things, and I still sometimes get them mixed up. An opiate is a chemical which occurs naturally in an opium poppy, so that includes opium, morphine, and codeine. The term opioid is broader, and includes synthetics as well as natural extracts.

There are semi-synthetic opioids like heroin and oxycodone, which are not found in nature but are created by altering naturally derived opiates to make them more potent. Then there are completely synthetic opioids like methadone and fentanyl, which are made entirely in a lab and do not require poppies to produce.

The trend over the past century since opium parlors were first banned in the early 1900s has been to move the underground market along this chain, from opium to morphine to heroin to fentanyl. There has been a steady increase in potency and risk over the many decades these drugs have been banned from general access. This is caused partly by technological advances allowing the creation of increasingly potent forms, but mainly because of what’s called the Iron Law of Prohibition, which says “The harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs.”

Essentially, whenever you ban a drug, it becomes more concentrated and stronger—not necessarily because users want a stronger and riskier version but because the increased potency makes it easier and more profitable to smuggle. Stricter laws and more enforcement always make a given drug more risky and increase the danger in using it.