History of Fentanyl in America | Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller

I'm going deep inside the fentanyl pipeline to see exactly how it's fueling the most devastating drug epidemic in U.S. history. Yeah, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, making it the most potent narcotic in clinical use. I'm hoping, really, really hoping this guy knows what he's doing here.

The drug acts on natural opioid receptors or pleasure centers in the brain. Our bodies' opioid receptors are found in the same parts of the brain that control emotions and physical pain. The drug takes over these receptors, relieving pain and creating a state of euphoria. But abusing these receptors is dangerous and even deadly. Opioid abuse can lead to respiratory depression or slow and shallow breathing, which can be fatal.

The chief is in there trying to revive this patient. There was a woman on the floor. It was an overdose; she was overdosing. Fentanyl was first created in Belgium in 1960 by Dr. Paul Jansen. Jansen was the founder of Jansen Pharmaceutical, which is now owned by Johnson & Johnson. Fentanyl, like most opioids, was made with the purpose of helping patients relieve the most severe forms of pain—from patients in surgery to patients battling cancer.

In hospital settings, the drug became revolutionary for pain management during the early to mid-1960s. Heart surgery was new, and previous types of anesthesia were causing cardiac arrest during surgery. Researchers found that fentanyl had minimal effects on the heart and replaced morphine for cardiac anesthesiologists. By the 1980s, fentanyl was also faster-acting, more potent, inexpensive to create, and could be administered in a multitude of different ways.

Over time, prescription opioids became more popular. U.S. pharmaceutical companies began marketing other opioids, assuring patients that the addiction risk was low. Less than one percent of patients taking opioids actually become addicted, but that wasn't the case. Patients got addicted, and the U.S. was now dealing with an opioid epidemic.

Approximate cause for the prescription opioid epidemic in our state are companies who marketed fraudulently the addictive qualities of the drug. Over two decades, in many cases knowing that there was a high probability that patients will become addicted. When overdoses began to rise, doctors made these drugs more difficult to obtain. But those already addicted turned to black market versions of these opioids, like heroin.

By the 2010s, fentanyl was one of the deadliest drugs of abuse in the United States. In 2015, fentanyl trafficked via Mexico emerged on the U.S. black market in a big way. In recent years, 200 people die per day from drug overdoses in the United States. The most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the United States are linked to illegally made fentanyl, and it remains one of the most difficult drugs to stop. It's wiping out a generation.

[Music]