The deputy director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Puerto Rico says that fentanyl drugs are being manufactured in the Dominican Republic. Israel Alicea of the DEA described the drug as more damaging than heroine and morphine.
Fentanyl is an opioid medication and a narcotic. It is used as part of anesthesia to help prevent pain after surgery or other medical procedures. For the individual abusing the drug outside a hospital, this is highly dangerous, as the difference between a therapeutic dose and a deadly dose is described as very small. As with any opiate, the main symptoms of fentanyl abuse are euphoria, drowsiness, lethargy and mellowness. Fentanyl very quickly creates a tolerance to high doses, so a dose that is adequate for the intended high one week will probably not create that intended high even a few days later.
A recent article in the New York Times states that over the past three years, fentanyl has been popping up in drug seizures across the country. The newspaper writes that most of the time, the drug is sold on the street as heroin or drug traffickers are using it to make cheap counterfeit prescription opioids. It also explains that fentanyls are showing up in cocaine that is contributing to an increase in cocaine-related overdoses.
Read more in Spanish:
NY Times
El Nacional
25 July 2017
