Last year alone, Fentanyl killed more people than COVID-19 in the Bay Area.
Fentanyl is super powerful, odorless, and tasteless. Because of how cheap it is and its highly addictive nature, more dealers have been mixing it into other drugs to help ensure customers get addicted. The DEAsays there are two major products contributing to the mass overdoses across the nation.
Dealers have been adding fentanyl into both counterfeit prescription pills and powdered drugs like cocaine.
The deadly drug was first developed as an anesthetic for surgeries in the 1960s but was soon prescribed for chronic pain in the 1990s. After drug companies got in trouble for lying about the addictive nature of opioids in the 2000s, the government began to restrict the supply of prescription pain medications. But people were already addicted and turning to the black market for their fix.
On Tuesday, a man in San Jose was sentenced to eight years in prison for selling fake “M30” pills laced with fentanyl that caused two people to overdose, killing one. Many victims of overdoses have no idea the drugs contain fentanyl until it's too late.