After ravaging America, the fentanyl crisis has hit the UK. Click here to find out what everyone needs to know about the spread of this dangerous drug!
America’s fentanyl crisis has crossed the pond and made its way to the United Kingdom.
The number of fentanyl deaths in England and Wales rose by 29% in 2017, and the numbers show no signs of slowing down. Fentanyl use in the UK continues to grow, which puts more people at risk of accidental death.
But what is fentanyl? How is this crisis different from ones we’ve seen in the past?
Read on for everything you need to know about the spread of this dangerous drug.
What Is Fentanyl?
So what is this drug? Why are so many people dying from it?
Fentanyl is a man-made, extremely strong opioid. By extremely strong, we mean fifty times stronger than heroinstrong. 100 times stronger than morphine strong.
Its intended purpose is as a powerful painkiller, only to be used for extreme cases like cancer. You can find it in hospitals for this reason. However, fentanyl is causing problems on the street because it’s being mixed with drugs like heroin and cocaine.
These two are dangerous on their own, but when cut or laced with fentanyl, they become deadly quickly. You can die from using fentanyl just once — and since it’s usually mixed in with a different drug, most people never know what happened.
The American Fentanyl Crisis
America was already facing an opioid crisis before fentanyl came along. Weaker opioids were being prescribed to Americans as painkillers. (Opioids are also prescribed in the UK.) For a variety of reasons — how powerful the drugs are, people abusing their prescriptions, bad luck — a lot of people developed an addiction to these drugs.
Others were just chasing a different high and found what they were looking for in opioids.
Now, a growing number of Americans are hooked on opioids, which led to an increase in heroin users. Some of those people went looking for fentanyl, searching for a stronger high, while others took it without knowing.
Fentanyl has become the deadliest drug in the country, causing most of its accidental overdoses. Where the drug shows up, the death toll spikes.
Officials are treating this as a public health emergency.
What Does This Mean for the UK?
So what can we learn from what’s happening in the United States?
First, addiction treatment services are more important than ever. To help make sure this crisis becomes a thing of the past, people need to get the assistance they need to get their lives back on track.
People are also trying to convince the government to push additional funding for opioid substitution therapy, which could go a long way towards helping people move past a dangerous addiction.
Be Prepared
As you learn more about the fentanyl crisis, be sure you also learn how you can help others and yourself.
If you don’t know what something is, it’s better to be safe than very sorry. Don’t just trust that someone is telling the whole truth about what they gave you. If you have a loved one who is struggling with addiction, get them the help they need by finding a treatment center near you.
Above all, stay informed – make sure you’re up-to-date with the news.
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