Deaths from the synthetic opioid doubled in just one year.
Fentanyl, an incredibly potent synthetic opioid, is thought to be anywhere from 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and has commonly been prescribed to manage severe pain after a surgery or debilitating pain from advanced stages of cancer. But in recent years, illegal manufacturing of fentanyl has skyrocketed, and as a result, has led to a sharp spike in the number of drug overdose deaths from synthetic opioids.
