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posted by janrinok on Friday May 25 2018, @07:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-to-spoil-a-lot-of-parties dept.

Record US fentanyl bust 'enough to kill 26 million people'

Nearly 120lbs (54kg) of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller, has been seized by police in Nebraska - one of the largest busts in US history.

The drugs, seized last month, could kill over 26 million people, according to estimates by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Police found the fentanyl in a fake compartment of a lorry. The driver and a passenger were arrested.

[...] It was the largest seizure of fentanyl in state history, Nebraska State Patrol said in a Twitter post on Thursday.

[...] Just 2mg of fentanyl - or a few grains of table salt - is a lethal dosage for most people, and even exposure can cause a fatal reaction, according to the DEA.

Another estimate: they could make 260 million people pain-free for a day.

Bonus story:

Mussels test positive for opioids in Seattle's Puget Sound

Scientists at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife have found that mussels in Seattle's waters are testing positive for opioids. The finding suggests "a lot of people" are taking oxycodone in the Puget Sound, researchers say.

Also at the Puget Sound Institute.

Related: Opioid Addiction is Big Business
Heroin, Fentanyl? Meh: Carfentanil is the Latest Killer Opioid
Cop Brushes Fentanyl Off Uniform, Overdoses
Opioid Crisis Official; Insys Therapeutics Billionaire Founder Charged; Walgreens Stocks Narcan
U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline Due to Opioid Crisis
Senate Investigators Google Their Way to $766 Million of Fentanyl
"Synthetic Opioids" Now Kill More People than Prescription Opioids in the U.S.
British Medical Journal Calls for Legalizing All Drugs


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  • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday May 25 2018, @08:34PM (4 children)

    by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 25 2018, @08:34PM (#684197)

    The lethal dose of dihydrous oxide for an average human is about 7e-19 % of the world's supply (that is a decimal point followed by 20 zeroes before you get a seven).

    So, you only need very little amount of this excessively dangerous substance to kill us all!

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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday May 25 2018, @09:03PM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @09:03PM (#684212)
    What, exactly, do you think "hydrous" means? I'm curious.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Friday May 25 2018, @09:18PM (2 children)

    by vux984 (5045) on Friday May 25 2018, @09:18PM (#684219)

    And if I put a tiny tiny fraction of the worlds supply of rock on your chest you'll die too. But I'm not carting around the worlds supply of rock in the trunk of my car am I? Nor are you going to just lie around while i stack it on your chest.
    54kg of fentanyl is pretty portable, and the lethal doses even moreso.

    Plus it's pretty hard to ingest a lethal dose of water. I mean, you CAN do it, but your body is telling you to stop long before you get there. Its way easier to drown in it than it is to poison yourself with it.
    Meanwhile a lethal dose of fentanyl can go down in one swallow, without being a significant part of what you swallowed.

    If you are trying to make a point, its not clear what that point is. fentanyl and water are simply not peers on the list of toxic substances that we need to be careful of.

    • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday May 25 2018, @10:12PM (1 child)

      by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 25 2018, @10:12PM (#684239)

      7e-19 % of the world's supply of dihydrous oxide has a mass less than one fifth of that fentanyl stash confiscated. So, talking about ability to carry around a lethal dose of dihydrous oxide should be taken very seriously! I've seen criminals carrying that amount out of grocery stores! Go get 'm, those potential killers.

      • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:17PM

        by vux984 (5045) on Sunday May 27 2018, @07:17PM (#684883)

        " ability to carry around a lethal dose "

        Now you are comparing a (singular) lethal dose that you'd have to try pretty hard to administer, and which is almost (but not quite) impossible to take accidentally with a substance that is extremely easy to overdose on, and is millions upon millions of times more portable.

        "should be taken very seriously!"

        No, it shouldn't. Your bare hands are more of threat. I'm actually safer from you if you are planning to kill me with water poisoning because its so unlikely to succeed; than if you'd planned to simply strangle me.