Fentanyl
Fentanyl powder seized by a Lake County Deputy Sheriff in Painesville, Ohio, where a male subject had been discovered unresponsive and struggling to breathe. USDEA

Heroine has long been one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs on the market causing millions of deaths around the world. But authorities are seeing a rise in heroine laced with another potent and deadly ingredient: fentanyl. And now fentanyl­laced heroine is being blamed for more than 80 deaths in the US in recent weeks.

Fentanyl is a narcotic generally given to people suffering from chronic pain like cancer. It can also be used as an anesthetic. Eight times more powerful than morphine, fentanyl is a highly dangerous drug. As of yet, authorities are unsure where it is coming from. They don’t know if it’s being secretly manufactured since it’s generally only available in hospitals.

Drug dealers and makers are using this potent ingredient as a marketing tool to users; it increases their desire and tolerance of heroin, despite the deadly threat. Authorities believe that bags of heroin, flippantly labeled “Bud Light” “Theraflu” and “Income Tax”, have been laced with fentanyl.

The dangerous effects of heroin have long been around, but again surfaced in the media after the high profile overdoes of Philip Seymour Hoffman who died in his Manhattan home with a needle in his arm. However, authorities confirmed the heroine found in Hoffman’s apartment was not laced with Fentanyl.