The public health crisis embodied in the increasing abuse of opioids has reached a new lethality. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid more powerful than heroin, but only 2 grams can be fatal. The drug is finding its way into the US heroin and cocaine supply where unsuspecting addicts die from their drug of choice laced with "Apache" or "China White", as it is known on the street. Most of it comes from China through the mail, and it is available on-line. The death rate from synthetic opioids has increased by 72% from 2014 to 2015 according to data from the Center for Disease Control. An idea of how powerful the drug is can be gauged from the fact that a fentanyl derivative is used to tranquilize elephants and rhinos. Interestingly, Russia's spetnaze forces used a fentanyl-based gas to subdue Chechen terrorists who held an entire theater filled with people hostage in 2002. 130 of the 850 hostages died from their exposure to the gas. It's legitimate use is for relief of extreme pain associated with advanced cancer. The regions showing are the most increase in overdose deaths are in the Northeast and the Midwest [chart above]. Abuse of the drug first appeared in the 1970's among the medical community, but has spread rapidly since then. It was developed in the 1960's under the trade name of Sublimaze.
