Fentanyl Now the No. 1 Opioid OD Killer

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Fentanyl Now the No. 1 Opioid OD Killer

By Steven Reinberg


WEDNESDAY, Dec. 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- As the U.S. opioid epidemic grinds on, fentanyl is fast becoming the main culprit in drug overdose deaths, health officials report.

Cocaine and heroin remain the street drugs of choice, but more overdose deaths involve fentanyl, either mixed with those narcotics or taken alone. Between 2013 and 2016, overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased about 113 percent per year, researchers found.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20181212/fentanyl-now-the-no-1-opioid-od-killer#1

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A considerable portion of that fentanyl comes illegally from China.

China and the United States come to agreement at G-20 summit around fentanyl
Fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid, is extremely addictive and 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is added to heroin to increase the drug's potency.
Dec. 2, 2018 / 1:33 PM EST
By Phil McCausland and Tom Winter

The United States came to an agreement with China at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires this week over the regulation of the opioid fentanyl, which is linked to thousands of overdoses in the United States.

China and the United States released individual statements regarding the bilateral agreement about the ongoing trade war between them, and both said they had found some common ground on further regulating the drug fentanyl.

"Very importantly, President Xi, in a wonderful humanitarian gesture, has agreed to designate Fentanyl as a Controlled Substance, meaning that people selling Fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.  ...

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