What is fentanyl – the highly-toxic drug that killed Prince

The musician died in April 2016.

New toxicology reports have revealed that Prince had “exceedingly high” levels of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death. The report which was obtained by the Associated Press confirmed that Prince’s blood contained 67.8 micrograms of fentanyl per litre - it also revealed that others have died from as little as 3 micrograms per litre. But what actually is fentanyl? Fentanyl is heroin’s stronger, synthetic cousin which is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the US. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and even multiple times that again of heroin. It’s becoming increasingly common for drug users to accidentally inject heroin that has traces of fentanyl in it which can be deadly. It is also common for fentanyl sold on the streets to be made in unsafe labs making it less pure and the effects more unpredictable. With the increasingly deadly opioid crisis affecting many countries, research has shown that 70 percent of the nearly 450 opioid-related deaths in the US state of New England alone involved fentanyl. Fentanyl’s original purpose was to be used an as anaesthetic until doctors realised how great a pain reliever it was in small, controlled doses. However, a fentanyl overdose is a more difficult one to combat in comparison to a morphine overdose for example. Medications like naloxone are used to block the effects of opioids, particularly after an overdose, and while it is usually successful when it comes to morphine overdose, it may not be able to revive someone who has overdosed on fentanyl.