Fentanyl Reaches Colombian Victims
Losing twelve friends in two years sounds like something unbearable for us, but users addicted to fentanyl, see it as acceptable and not a good enough reason to quit the drug. Fentanyl is a drug that has seen an increase in popularity in the last few years. It is not common in South America yet. However in North America, it has been prescribed for years now, without taking into consideration its potential for abuse. North America is experiencing one of the worst drug crisis to date, and it’s mostly due to one particular opioid. Fentanyl, one of the most harmful drugs in the planet right now, causing thousands of deaths every year around the world.
Fentanyl is a man made opioid, meaning that its potency can be altered when manufacturing it. The drug is about 100 times more potent than morphine, a common opiate used in hospitals around the globe. The problem with opioids, is that the consumer develops an immediate tolerance to the drug. So if consumed daily, after about two weeks, the first dose you took won’t even make you tingle. It now becomes a duty. Since doctors North America, have been prescribing opioids as if they where Tic-Tacs it has opened a door for new consumers into the opiate world. Meaning that when they consume them, they are immediately exposed to the dangers they bring with them. A lot of prescription users, divert the drug use and make it recreational, causing them to seek for more potent substances, as their tolerance increases. There has been cases of people around the globe, with the same issue, and recently, one in our own country, told his story.
Samuel Andres, a reporter in Bogotá, was prescribed fentanyl, and the consequences were awful. He was diagnosed with a cancer, that would cause him chronic pain in some parts of his body. The doctor prescribed him with fentanyl patches, a way to give the drug at a very controlled and passed way. But the amount of pleasure that the patch gave him, made him lose control, and he quickly fell into abusing the substance. He was an addict for years, until he faced a severe overdose, and decided it was enough. He has been in recovery for the past few months. The fact that people are uninformed about what this drug is, and what it can do, causes them to take it as a common substance and not really worry about it. Not understanding the potency, potential for abuse, and secondary effects of this drug is ridiculous. The crisis has been spreading, and is expanding to Colombia.
This drug however, when not abused, can help patients. A proper use of the drug, can relieve and almost completely abolish chronic pains. According to Rehab Spot, the opioid when managed properly is more efficient and less costly than morphine, however it poses more danger. The matter is how susceptible a patient is to abusing it. If morphine where to be abused, it would have the same problems. Fentanyl, is not only much more potent, but it also costs a fraction to produce. Shipping costs are cheaper, therefore profits are higher. Drug dealers don’t care about their drug users.
Fentanyl, is a very dangerous substance that has been disguised as a common and safe opiate. The drug is reaching Colombia, and people should be aware of the consequences and effect this drug can have on them.
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