By Columnist Megan McArdle –

Dec. 4, 2018 – If drugs were comic book villains, fentanyl would be the pitiless 20-story-tall super-robot towering over lesser henchmen such as heroin or oxycodone. Those older drugs are ultimately based on natural compounds found in opium poppies; fentanyl is entirely synthetic, made from precursor chemicals. This means it’s comparatively cheap to make — no worries about poppy blight or drug-enforcement agents destroying the crop you’ve spent months tending. More importantly, Fentanyl binds more effectively to neurological receptors than the naturally derived drugs, meaning that a tiny amount is incredibly powerful — up to 50 times more potent than heroin. It’s thus easier to conceal, because a kilo of pure fentanyl can be split into many more doses than a kilo of pure heroin. And because synthetic opioids can vary slightly in their chemical makeup, fentanyl is also harder for customs to detect. Cheap, convenient fentanyl, much of it sourced from China, has flooded the United States over the past few years, crowding out weaker opioids…

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