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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, 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.

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  • (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.