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Dark Web Dealers Voluntarily Ban Deadly Fentanyl (theguardian.com)
Major dark web drug suppliers have started to voluntarily ban the synthetic opioid fentanyl because it is too dangerous. "They are 'delisting' the high-strength painkiller, effectively classifying it alongside mass-casualty firearms and explosives as commodities that are considered too high-risk to trade," reports The Guardian. From the report: Vince O'Brien, one of the NCA's leads on drugs, told the Observer that dark web marketplace operators appeared to have made a commercial decision, because selling a drug that could lead to fatalities was more likely to prompt attention from police. It is the first known instance of these types of operators moving to effectively ban a drug.
O'Brien said: "If they've got people selling very high-risk commodities then it's going to increase the risk to them. There are marketplaces that will not accept listings for weapons and explosives -- those are the ones that will not accept listings for fentanyl. Clearly, law enforcement would prioritize the supply of weapons, explosives and fentanyl over, for example, class C drugs -- and that might well be why they do this. "There are also drug users on the dark web who say on forums that they don't think it's right that people are selling fentanyl because it is dangerous and kills a lot of people."
O'Brien said: "If they've got people selling very high-risk commodities then it's going to increase the risk to them. There are marketplaces that will not accept listings for weapons and explosives -- those are the ones that will not accept listings for fentanyl. Clearly, law enforcement would prioritize the supply of weapons, explosives and fentanyl over, for example, class C drugs -- and that might well be why they do this. "There are also drug users on the dark web who say on forums that they don't think it's right that people are selling fentanyl because it is dangerous and kills a lot of people."
Excellent point on therapeutic index.
As an addendum to your dilution point, if you can't measure accurately at small scale, dilute it or cut it with something else, then measure at a larger scale where mistakes aren't as punishing. If you don't want an ultimately cut product, dissolve it in a solvent, then evaporate off the solvent, preferably recovering it for recycling.
The problem with Fentanyl isn't Fentanyl pills... it's Fentanyl spiked heroin/whatever. Cause that lets them cut the underlying drug more. So, you have heroin of unknown quality and it's too strong.
Part of it is the various tolerances, but a bigger problem is the difficultly measuring (as you point out) and evenly mixing the Fentanyl into the drug. Also, it's so damn potent that trying to clean up drugs left behind by addicts, even with gloves, can aerosolize enough to kill people. Like cops or bereaved parents.
A big part of the solution is Fentanyl testing kits for illegal drugs, to prove they are pure.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Drug dealers are not, by preference, killers. They're business owners. And they don't want corpses. They want repeat customers. And you can't go back for more if you're dead from an overdose.
Imagine all the people...
Sometimes they do want to kill a customer, as an advertising tactic. They intentionally slip a fatal dose of fentanyl into some heroin for example, and sell it to a customer they can afford to lose. This death sends up a beacon, making other junkies think that this dealer has "the good stuff" on the assumption that it was purity/potency that caused the overdose and not intentional contamination.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Fentanyl is a terrible substance. It has its uses, but they are very limited. It's an extremely short-acting drug, so it doesn't provide good long-term pain relief unless used in a patch, in which case why not use extended-release morphine? It's really good for the induction of anesthesia, because it blunts the painful process of being intubated but doesn't last so long that it keeps you from breathing at the end of the case. Other than that, I don't use it on my patients, and I'm an anesthesiologist.
Dilution isn't a bad idea, and it's what we do - hospital fentanyl comes in 50 mcg/mL, so for one gram of solution you have 50 mcg of agent. 0.005%. Easy to fuck it up, or make it uneven. Even if you recrystallize it yourself to get clean product... it's risky as hell. I'd pump myself full of naloxone (opioid antagonist) before I'd even consider working with the powdered drug unless it was in a fully sealed drybox or similar.
I knew one guy who used to shoot fentanyl - the hospital-grade, known-strength stuff. He'd start an IV on himself. He'd then squirt a vial of naloxone into a small bag of saline, and hook that up to the IV. Then he would pinch it off and shoot up. If he passed out, the naloxone would start flowing, and he'd come back to life... that's roughly the level of precaution required when you know exactly what you're getting.
That's not how Chinese system works. They literally don't have ruling families on a principle. If you're a member of the elite, your children just get a shot at ruling a small township in the middle of nowhere.
After that, it's almost all merit if they want to advance, which is why they largely lack actual dynasties. And if you fuck with drugs beyond what party leadership approves of (i.e. sabotage of geopolitical opponents) and someone high up finds out, it's not just noose for you. It's exile from party leadership for the father. You're certainly allowed to do dirty things for the state, which is viewed as patriotic. But the moment you turn that against the interests of the state and someone high up finds out, you're just fucked.