Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff

Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic

by Ben Westhoff

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Crime & Justice

Fifty times stronger than heroin, cheap to make in Chinese labs and sold online for Bitcoin: fentanyl is where the overdose crisis turned deadliest, in Westhoff's account. Over about four years, 160 interviews and undercover reporting inside Chinese operations, he follows the supply from lab to mailbox.

Core ideas
  • Faster than the law: Chemists tweak a molecule slightly to stay ahead of bans, so a newly scheduled compound is quickly replaced by a legal variant.
  • From medicine to menace: Paul Janssen developed fentanyl as a prescription painkiller in 1959, and the book argues China's government subsidizes the chemical industry feeding illicit production.
  • Harm reduction instead: Sanctioned drug-checking and supervised consumption in Barcelona point to the approach the book favors over the War on Drugs.
Published2019
Pages356
ISBN9780802127433
ReadDec 2024

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