In this market, a better high for less money will attract lots of customers, even if it is less healthy than the alternative.

So, if you’re in the business of selling the somewhat healthier product, and one supplier starts to supply the otherwise superior product, that’s not good for business, either. You will lose customers.

Now, do you accept that, saying “I won’t sell that”, do you fight to outlaw the product (will be hard given at you’re not selling healthy products, either), do you fight the suppliers of the new product (a gang war) or do you add the product to your inventory?

There often isn’t a clear choice; each option has its pros and cons.

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compass_copium an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Fentanyl is not a better high. It's decidedly less euphoric than traditional opioids. It's just dirt cheap, ridiculously potent so it's easier to traffic, and doesn't have any agricultural footprint. The market pressure for fent is completely on the supply side.

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bigfishrunning 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"less healthy" is a bit of an understatement; they're not selling cigarettes that will kill you in the long term (or even the medium or short term). Fentanyl will kill you the first time you're exposed to it.

Increasing the potency of some drug with fentanyl is an interesting choice, because by the time the user *knows* how strong it is, there's some likelihood they're already dead.

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Someone an hour ago | parent [-]

> Fentanyl will kill you the first time you're exposed to it.

Its lethal dose is a lot smaller than that of heroin, but it isn’t guaranteed to kill. If it were, why is it used so much in medicine?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl: “Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid of the piperidine family, used primarily as pain medication

[…]

In 2015, 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds) were used in healthcare globally.

It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.”

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TeMPOraL an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There's always a continuity there ("the dose makes the poison"), there's no known substance that will reliably kill you if you're exposed to a single molecule of it.

The issue with potency is that the more potent a substance, the more precise equipment and quality control you need to stay on the safe side. With fentanyl, healthcare and pharmaceutical industry can handle the precision and QC demands (which includes guarantees and maintaining public trust). Criminal enterprises cannot.

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RajT88 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Carfentanil has got to be closer to that. It is said to be up to 100x more powerful than fentanyl.

Micrograms (yes still many molecules) could be lethal

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throwdown7653 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

prions perhaps?

	▲	prmph 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Even with prions, there evidence that the body (and probably more so with some people than others) has some level of ability to resist, slow, or sometimes prevent a prion infection. See these: - The influence of PRNP polymorphisms on human prion disease susceptibility: an update [1] - A naturally occurring variant of the human prion protein completely prevents prion disease \| Nature [2] [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26022925/ [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14510?utm_source=chatg...

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jan_m_savage an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

is it used in general anesthesia?

for kids?

	▲	mdp2021 an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You are aware that "pharmaceutical" vs "poison" is a matter of doses and control, right? That a dose not too different from adult posology of paracetamol can be lethal? Maybe you did not know that "heroin" was developed at Bayer (the informal name came out of the trials after the reports from the testers)... Pharmacology is the discipline that deals with drugs.
	▲	bigfishrunning an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't know about kids, but yes it is used in general anesthesia.

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throwaway63467 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I guess if you’re the mafia you just murder the competitors. Can’t have stronger regulation than that!

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an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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