Street Fentanyl Tied To Many Deaths (at The Wall Street Journal Online)

Illicit versions of the painkiller fentanyl were linked to more than 1,000 deaths in this country between 2005 and 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The powerful painkiller, often mixed with cocaine or heroin and taken by injection, first caught the attention of the CDC in 2006, after it was connected to a wave of overdose deaths in Camden, New Jersey. Further investigation tied it to deaths in other cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Louis. The DEA started regulating access to a key ingredient used to make fentanyl, and law enforcement officials started shutting down places where the drug was made illegally. The WSJ notes that the overdoses largely subsided after a production site in Mexico, believed to be a key source, was shut down. Fentanyl is sold legally in... [read full story]