Who Caused the Fentanyl Crisis?

When I was heavily involved in the synthetic drug/research chemical game (2010-2015), there WERE no synthetic opioids being made.  Any time the topic arose, it was quickly shut down with arguments like "we don't need that kind of negative attention on our community" and "it will take about 2 minutes for someone to overdose".  Even the Chinese chemists did not involve themselves with this class of drugs.  The research chemical boards had subforums for stimulants, cannabinoids, psychedelics & benzos but NO place for discussing synthetic opioids.  In essence the grey market was regulating itself--while they could've made big profits on this highly addictive class of drugs, they refused because they didn't want to kill people & draw unwanted attention to the research chemical market.

Notice the lack of synthetic opioid subforums? (Click to expand).

And then the Obama administration twisted China's arm, convincing them to enact a ban on 116 research chemicals.  In conjunction with Operation Log Jam in 2012, this essentially shut down the U.S. research chemical market.

Around this same time in 2016, the CDC put a total stop to opioid prescribing with new guidelines that left everyone from shameless addicts to terminal cancer patients flapping in the wind, unable to access their needed medication.  A wave of suicides resulted.  Those who didn't kill themselves overwhelmingly turned to the black market to obtain illicit pills (but usually heroin because it was far cheaper than drugs like OxyContin, which sold for around $1 per milligram).  For the first time in history, the black market was having a hard time meeting the demand for heroin & other opioids due to the colossal wave of pain patients turned away from doctors' offices.  What to do?  

Of course they did what the black market always does:  find the most efficient way to meet the demand.  Enter illicit fentanyl.  Unlike the kind found on prescription pain patches & lollipops, this powdered fentanyl was produced by Chinese chemists often working in the same labs that supplied other research chemicals a couple years earlier.  Fentanyl is about 50x more potent than heroin (or 100x more potent than morphine) & requires no growing/harvesting/processing of fields of poppies, which meant less risk for smugglers & dealers who could give customers what they wanted with much less effort & risk to them.  It also meant bigger profits since fentanyl can be "stepped on" (cut) many times.  

Fittingly, the U.S. media moved on from "bath salt zombie" & "Spice/K2 craze" stories to feigned concern about this new threat.  Yet these stories have always lacked any attempt to determine WHY this drug became so prevalent or what could be done to stop it.  "Drug That Kills in Micrograms" and "One Pill Can Kill" headlines filled the airwaves, giving heavy focus to the Mexican cartels & Chinese chemists associated with this drug but again, giving ZERO attention to the FDA, DEA & Department of Homeland Security's role in causing the problem.  

And what of the pharmaceutical companies that got all those people hooked on pain pills to begin with?  They pushed highly euphoric addictive drugs like OxyContin & Dilaudid on doctors for big kickbacks, resulting in nearly 30 years of unchecked overprescribing.  Yet not one Sackler or other super wealthy pharma CEO has spent a day in prison, facing--at worst--lawsuits in civil court for causing the biggest drug crisis this country has ever known.  Meanwhile low-level dealers of drugs containing fentanyl are now being charged with murder when a customer dies of overdose.  This idiotic move has lead to predictable consequences in the form of new & more potent classes of drugs like the nitazenes & tranq dope hitting the market, the latter of which has skin rotting effects comparable to krokodil.  

Not Concerned With Solutions

Back in 2016-2017 when Tom Petty & Prince died tragically, you had to be an opioid user to end up overdosing on a fentanyl-tainted drug.  Not so today.  Now the drug is routinely found in cocaine, Ecstasy, fake Xanax, Adderall & every other street drug in North America.  The number of celebrities we've lost in this manner is sickening (R.I.P. Gangsta Boo, Lil' Peep & Shock G).  This is a legitimate crisis.  Kids who would've never touched an opioid are dying from a single "Valium" pill or line of coke.  Still, our government & media are not looking for legitimate solutions, merely continuing to demonize cartels & find new ways to try & "crack down" on smugglers & dealers while screaming about the scourge of Rainbow Fentanyl.  

Two things we know to be true:  cutting people off any medication abruptly is never a good idea.  Secondly, you can't arrest your way out of a drug epidemic: every time you ban a drug or enact a new "tough on drugs" law, a new & more deadly class of drugs pops up in its place.  The FDA, president & other agencies knew this when they banned those Chinese chemicals in 2015 & when they cut patients off their pills en masse in March 2016.  This can only mean one thing:  they don't give one flying fuck if hundreds of thousands of Americans die from adulterated drugs and are only behaving in a self-serving way that benefits the DEA & other anti-drug agencies.  They know what would stop this massacre, yet to admit it would mean admitting defeat in America's longest war--the War On Drugs.  

Legalizing, regulating & educating the public on harm reduction is the only way out of this death spiral. In just a few years, the legalization of marijuana at a statewide level pushed the cartels out of the cannabis game altogether; no more Mexican brickweed or fear of "paraquat pot".  Countries that have sane drug laws such as heroin substitution programs (Switzerland, UK) & decriminalization of all drugs like Portugal have infinitely fewer cases of addiction & overdose.  In most countries you can walk into a pharmacy & buy low-potency drugs like tramadol, Valium, codeine & dihydrocodeine without a prescription--these nations don't have a fentanyl problem.  Drug laws in the U.S. are among the strictest in the world and, whaddaya know?  We're also #1 in drug addiction and overdose in the entire world.  That's not a coincidence, it's cause & effect.  

Addiction/overdose rates for 2020, the most recent year available

When a variety of less potent drugs are unavailable, people turn to whatever IS.  And cartels/dealers are not going to waste their time with these weaker drugs that carry lower profit margins & greater risk to themselves.  The black market always goes for the most potent, addictive drugs in any class--things like meth, heroin (now fentanyl), crack, isonitazene, PCP & DMT.  In a prohibitionist society, there are no age restrictions on these black market drugs; dealers will sell to anyone with enough money to buy them.  And no educational materials are present at the point of sale... no harm reduction aids like clean needles or fentanyl test strips.  Best case scenario is you get what you paid for; worst case scenario you get an adulterated drug or meet with physical violence while attempting to buy the drug.  Addicts are forced to panhandle, steal, prostitute themselves & do other desperate/illegal things to finance their habits because of artificial price inflation of illegal drugs which doesn't exist with alcohol.  

Those problems & so many more could be solved by legalizing adult drug use & regulating the drug supply for purity.  So why is the media silent about this & other important measures like fighting homelessness & increasing access to mental healthcare in their sensational reports?  Just as the drug war was originally started on the basis of racism, it's being continued under those same pretenses.  When the government was trying to gain support for banning drugs in the early 20th Century, they linked marijuana with illegal Mexican immigrants & blamed opium for making Chinese railroad workers lazy & degenerate.  Cocaine was said to make Blacks sex-crazed rapists of white women.  It's easier to galvanize a weary public against a foreign threat & all but ensures support for their endless war on (some) drugs.  It's also racist & xenophobic as fuck and does absolutely nothing to solve the problem of addiction & overdose. 

"Chinese Opium Fiend" postcard, circa 1906

Racist articles on marijuana and Mexicans that kicked off the drug war

If When you see another pointless (or racist) scare story by mainstream media that doesn't include workable solutions to the overdose crisis, please say something.  A quick email to their editor via the "Contact Us" button or some other route is better than nothing.  Let your representatives know how you feel with a quick letter (and during election season by voting for those who denounce the drug war or withholding your vote altogether if necessary).  To sit by & do fuckall while we lose hundreds of thousands of Americans in their creative & productive prime is immoral, and what our leaders are doing is criminal.   Now Biden's CDC has removed the opioid prescription restrictions put in place in 2016, which means we're back to square one.  Meanwhile nothing tangible has changed in terms of drug laws, treatment availability, harm reduction education, affordable healthcare or other factors that would improve the addiction situation so essentially we're just starting the cycle all over again.  Some other president will come along and re-ban opioid prescribing, sending a new wave of patients to the black market with huge habits to die.

To answer the original question of who caused the fentanyl crisis:  the people & entities that profit from prohibition.  The pharmaceutical companies, President Obama, the FDA, CDC, DEA, police departments across the nation & other agencies that seek to ban certain substances while allowing other equally harmful ones to remain overly available is the answer.  Lawmakers who give a monopoly on healthcare to greedy pharmaceutical/insurance companies who have every incentive to lie about the addictive potential of their patented drugs.  You caused it and only you can get us out of it.  Please hurry, we're dying out here.