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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: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 25 2018, @08:07PM (20 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @08:07PM (#684180) Journal

    The drugs, seized last month, could kill over 26 million people

    There is also enough dihydrous oxide in the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers to kill all leventy-leven billion people who have lived all throughout history, as well as prehistory.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:13PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:13PM (#684186)

      Indeed. Can somebody convert to libraries of congress?

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 25 2018, @08:32PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday May 25 2018, @08:32PM (#684194) Journal

        The amount of fentanyl is equivalent to the Library of Congress's hentai manga collection (located in a secret compartment in the Serial and Government Publications Division).

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @09:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @09:08PM (#684216)

          located in a secret compartment in the Serial and Government Publications Division

          It's in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by EvilSS on Friday May 25 2018, @08:54PM (2 children)

        by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @08:54PM (#684208)
        The average book page from a standard size hardback book with 60# paper (it is the Library of congress, so they get the good printings) weighs in at around 5.08g, so this bust is the equivalent of 10,630 book pages. Give or take, and not including covers. Figure the average book is around 250 pages, this comes out to around 42.5 books, again give or take. Online search shows the library of congress has around 38,000,000. So this bust is 1.12x10^-6 libraries of congress.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by BsAtHome on Friday May 25 2018, @08:23PM

      by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 25 2018, @08:23PM (#684188)

      Haven't you heard? They are actually confiscating dihydrous oxide worldwide at travel-boarding-points. They really want to make sure that drowning cannot take place for your own and your neighbor's safety!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:25PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:25PM (#684190)

      Oh come on, it means the lethal dose is very small. And of course the DEA and cops are playing it up as usual, extrapolating out as far as they can stretch the numbers.

      Nothing new here.

      • (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!

        • (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.

    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday May 25 2018, @08:36PM (1 child)

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @08:36PM (#684198)
      It's cute when people think they know chemical nomenclature...
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @08:54PM (#684209)

      75 micrograms per hour is a standard patch dose, and they cost about $20 each in USA.

    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Friday May 25 2018, @10:07PM (2 children)

      by NewNic (6420) on Friday May 25 2018, @10:07PM (#684236) Journal

      What's more that dihydrous oxide is addictive stuff. I can't live without it!

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @10:09PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @10:09PM (#684237)

        I like vaping dihydrous oxide.

        • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday May 25 2018, @10:15PM

          by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 25 2018, @10:15PM (#684241)

          Warning: You are exhaling it constantly! Take care not to drown the people around you.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @04:14AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @04:14AM (#684356)

      I have several gallons of oxidane [dictionary.com] at my house...

      At least five gallons of it are even reagent grade purity!

      I carry some in my van just in case I find myself in some intractable situation where its the best thing to "get the job done".

      Its enough to kill several dozen people!

      Guess I better hide it before the authorities come a looking for it.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Snotnose on Friday May 25 2018, @08:44PM (2 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Friday May 25 2018, @08:44PM (#684204)

    News this morning said some guy's office was closed because he got an envelope in the mail filled with white powder. Could be Anthrax, chirped the blond newsreader.

    Now, I'm no mad genius or anything so making Anthrax or Ricin or whatever is doable (yay college chem!), but difficult (no lab equipment). But, I can easily order fentanyl from China (or so I hear).

    How long will it take for the news droids to realize there are things much more likely than getting Anthrax in the mail.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 25 2018, @09:12PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday May 25 2018, @09:12PM (#684218) Journal

      It's rare to see such innovative methods being used. You just don't get many Ted Kaczynskis or anthrax/ricin letter senders (one suspect, never charged in the anthrax case, and James Everett Dutschke was convicted for sending ricin letters in 2013, but incidents a decade earlier remain unsolved [wikipedia.org]).

      It's a lot easier to just pick up a couple of guns [youtube.com]. You're more likely to be caught or gunned down by police, but sometimes that's part of the appeal too.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @04:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @04:20AM (#684357)

      BOO!

      Isn't it surprising how we can upset the whole apple cart with some flour?

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by requerdanos on Friday May 25 2018, @09:07PM (3 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @09:07PM (#684215) Journal

    Just 2mg of fentanyl - or a few grains of table salt - is a lethal dosage for most people

    Okay. I give lab rat #1 2mg of fentanyl - several days' worth for even a bulky human, but *shrug* that's what the protocol says. The rat dies.

    Now I give lab rat #2 a few grains of table salt. The rat shows no ill effect, except he's licking his lips and he drank a sip of water.

    Experimental conclusion: The DEA is incompetent and should not be allowed to measure things.

    A lethal dose of table salt is somewhat larger than "a few grains," whether the grains are the deprecated measurement unit used for medication (1 "grain" =~ 65mg), or whether the word "grains" is being used as slang for granulated crystal pieces.

    This is incompetence mixed with fearmongering.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Friday May 25 2018, @09:21PM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday May 25 2018, @09:21PM (#684220) Journal

      Hahaha, good one. But it's the BBC's fault, not the DEA's. From the DEA's more carefully-worded FAQ:

      two milligrams of fentanyl (equivalent to a few grains of table salt) is considered to be a deadly dose for more than 95 percent of the American public

      However, the DEA/feds are known to include medium/packaging/glassware [wikipedia.org] when weighing drugs in order to inflict harsh sentencing:

      There can also be substantial discrepancies between the amount of chemical LSD that one possesses and the amount of possession with which one can be charged in the US. This is because LSD is almost always present in a medium (e.g. blotter or neutral liquid), and the amount that can be considered with respect to sentencing is the total mass of the drug and its medium. This discrepancy was the subject of 1995 United States Supreme Court case, Neal v. United States.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @09:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @09:40PM (#684225)

        There is also mention of purity in the article. More than likely it was already cut to heroin potency.

      • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:56AM

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:56AM (#684309) Journal

        From the DEA's more carefully-worded FAQ:

        two milligrams of fentanyl (equivalent to a few grains of table salt)

        Hardly careful, exculpatory wording. There is no measurable amount of fentanyl that's equivalent to any measurable quantity of table salt. Even were they similar in only one, or a few, features, which ones? Taste? Smell? Feel? Mass? Volume? Color? It doesn't say.

        This fentanyl can be dangerous stuff if you don't measure it carefully, yet the DEA is encouraging people to think it's just like NaCl--and saying it's deadly--in the same breath, robbing themselves of any credibility they previously possessed.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by mmcmonster on Friday May 25 2018, @10:58PM (6 children)

    by mmcmonster (401) on Friday May 25 2018, @10:58PM (#684254)

    54kg of Fentanyl was seized.

    To put it to some sort of scale, a fentanyl patch releases 25-100 mcg per hour. Typically the patch will contain 72 hours of fentanyl.

    The amount seized was 5.4x10^10 mcg.

    That's a LOT of hours of fentanyl.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 25 2018, @11:42PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 25 2018, @11:42PM (#684265)

      Some people here seem to think it's not much, or worth talking about... Let them have their 3mg.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday May 26 2018, @02:39AM (3 children)

      by edIII (791) on Saturday May 26 2018, @02:39AM (#684322)

      It is odd. I believe that works out to between 7.5 and 30 million patches. If you were buying to use it and not die, you probably would never buy more than 150 patches per year. Whoever this was could meet supply for probably the entirety of the US population needing it, for at least a year or two.

      Moving that much supply into one single place is absolutely crazy.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:28PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:28PM (#684505)

        Opiate tolerance shoots up remarkably fast. A 2+ gram/day heroin habit (way past deadly for non-users) can be achieved in less than month of use. This guy was probably wholesaling over a large region, but several kilos a day wouldn't be extraordinary in a decent sized metropolis.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @10:25PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @10:25PM (#684682)

          Especially when used as a mussel relaxant

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @08:16AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @08:16AM (#684795)

            I did not know this.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:28AM (#684424)

      They are trying to create fear. Imagine chemtrails depositing fentanyl all over population centers.

      For all I know, they never found any fentanyl. They are only scaring people. Today it is fentanyl. Tomorrow it will be something else after the scare of fentanyl reduces.

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