9781422274262

In 2017, legendary guitarist Tom Petty performed more than fifty shows in severe pain due to a partial hip fracture. Physicians prescribed a fentanyl patch to help with his severe pain. After Petty’s family found him collapsed in his music studio, he was rushed to the hospital where he died from an accidental overdose. Petty’s autopsy found that the rock star had supplemented the painkilling properties of the prescribed patch by ingesting other forms of fentanyl which were not legal. Patches are the most common way medical fentanyl is used. Other forms of legally prescribed fentanyl include lozenges, oral swabs, nasal sprays, and injections. Fentanyl in pill form is not prescribed or legal. How Is Fentanyl Illegally Used? Many people use illegal fentanyl without realizing it. Some dealers sell pills that they advertise as common pain medication like Percocet or OxyContin. In reality, these counterfeit pills often have fentanyl as an ingredient. Pain patients can turn to dealers because they develop a tolerance to ordinary pain medication. In narcotics or opioid tolerance, people need to take more and more of the medication to feel the same effect. Addiction psychiatrist Scott Bienenfeld says, “the majority of my patients are pain patients and someone gave them fentanyl as an add-on: ‘You’ve taken OxyContin, now take this.’” Drug dealers don’t tell their customers that the “add-on” is really fentanyl. Illegal opioid pills containing fentanyl showed up on the black market starting in 2007, when doctors started to write fewer prescriptions of legal opiates like OxyContin. The practice of “cutting” illegal drugs that are sold as powder, then injected by drug users, started years ago

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Who Uses Fentanyl?