9781422279656

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The Heroin Crisis

A bag of fentanyl pills seized in a DEA raid. Because Fentanyl causes effects similar to heroin, it is sometimes blended with low-grade heroin to make it more potent.

From 2014 to 2015, the number of deaths involving synthetic opioids rose by more than 72 percent, to nearly 10,000 deaths a year. One opioid in particular, fentanyl, is credited by the CDC for driving up the death rate. Fentanyl can be fifty to one hundred times more potent than heroin sold on the streets. How Does Heroin Work? Heroin and other opioids work by affecting the user’s brain and central nervous system. The cells of the nervous system, called neurons, that transmit directions from the brain to dif- ferent parts of the body. There are approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain alone. However, the neurons do not actu-