Do not stop using fentanyl without talking to your doctor. If you suddenly stop using fentanyl, you may experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. With the popularity of drug dealers mixing fentanyl into other drugs, fentanyl test strips can help people who use drugs identify whether what they are taking contains fentanyl or not.
Fentanyl Misuse Is Not Only Dangerous, But Deadly
This overdose rate has continued to rise in part because fentanyl is often mixed into or sold as other drugs. Because fentanyl is so strong, it takes only a small dose of the drug to cause death. While it’s safe for your doctor to give you fentanyl in a medical setting, some people abuse it, which can lead to an overdose.
About Medical News Today
Naloxone and naltrexone are opioid antagonists that reverse the effects of fentanyl. Ideally, it’s best to use them every time you use, but it may not be realistic for everyone. Naloxone is an FDA- approved medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses.
Breakthrough Pain
People who make it mix it with dyes and either press it into multicolored pills or sell it in a colored powder form. While some opioids come directly from the plant, fentanyl is made in a lab by scientists using the same chemical structure. Keep a written list of all of the prescription and nonprescription (over-the-counter) medicines, vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements you are taking. Bring this list with you each time you visit a doctor or if you are admitted to the hospital. You should carry the list with you in case of emergencies. Fentanyl comes as two different transmucosal products and several other types of products.
Legal Status Of Fentanyl
If you still have pain after using one lozenge or tablet, your doctor may tell you to use a second lozenge or tablet. You may use the second lozenge (Actiq) 15 minutes after you finish the first lozenge, or use the second tablet (Fentora) 30 minutes after you started using the first tablet. After you treat an episode of pain using 1 or 2 doses of fentanyl as directed, you must wait at least 4 hours after using fentanyl lozenge or tablet before treating another episode of breakthrough cancer pain. Talk to your doctor about how well the medication is working and whether you are experiencing any side effects so that your doctor can decide whether your dose should be adjusted. Tell your doctor if you feel that your pain is not controlled or if your pain increases, becomes worse, or if you have new pain or an increased sensitivity to pain during your treatment with oxycodone. Do not take more of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor.
Fentanyl Patch
Often drugs ordered from rogue websites come from foreign countries. It is a felony to import drugs into the United States and ship to a non-DEA registrant. “In order to buy the product, you have to use cryptocurrency, which requires a high level of technology,” she said.
Why Is Fentanyl Dangerous?
We expanded the age and drug use eligibility criteria created based on our recent research of the fentanyl overdose epidemic in Rhode Island 19. Fentanyl test strips detect the presence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than morphine, in unregulated injectable drugs, powders and pills. Naloxone (Narcan) is an antidote for fentanyl and other opioid overdoses. Naloxone helps reverse the respiratory depression of fentanyl. Naloxone can help prevent fentanyl-related deaths when it is given within a short period of time after an overdose. The nasal spray form of naloxone does not require a prescription and can be obtained from pharmacies.
From April 2024 to March 2025, the CDC reported 43,000 synthetic opioid deaths, most of which are from fentanyl, down from nearly 70,000 in the previous similar period. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have now surpassed heroin and prescription painkillers as the deadliest drugs in the United States. They killed more than 19,000 Americans in 2016, topping heroin (15,000) and prescription opioids (14,000) for the first time. In October 2024, following the indictment, the DEA issued a public safety alert warning about the increase of illegal online pharmacies selling counterfeit pills made with fentanyl and methamphetamine. Fentanyl is typically prescribed for patients with severe pain who have not responded to other opioid medications. Your healthcare provider will determine if fentanyl is appropriate for your condition and will provide you with a valid prescription.
Health Care Providers
The issue of drug safety has come to the fore as more Americans than ever turn to online pharmacies. According to the report, most of this fentanyl originates in China. China has cracked down on fentanyl and some of its subtypes, or analogues, but the online dealers often tweak the formulas of their drugs slightly to stay ahead of bans. For example, when China announced it would ban one fentanyl product, called U-47700, on July 1, one fentanyl dealer advertised a “hot sale” of the product through June. “All must go till 1 of July,” the “special offer” read, according to the report. No, it is not legal to buy fentanyl without a prescription.
Naloxone: Overdose Reversal Drug
Roughly 2 million people live with an opioid addiction in the U.S.”It’s important to note… An 11-month-old girl swallowed a blue tablet she found while crawling around a new apartment. Additional testing was positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine, acetaminophen, and tramadol (from Joynt & Wand, 2021).
The claim that some of the colors have a stronger effect than others is a myth. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists®, 4500 East-West Highway, Suite 900, Bethesda, Maryland. Duplication for commercial use must be authorized by ASHP. Talk to your doctor about eating grapefruit and drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication. Receive free access to exclusive content, a personalized homepage based on your interests, and a weekly newsletter with the topics of your choice.
- A Narcan nasal spray is available over-the-counter and anyone can administer it.
- “To protect patients, DEA and FDA try to identify fake pharmacy sites and shut them down, but it’s like playing Whac-A-Mole—as soon as they take one site down, another one pops up,” she told Newsweek.
- Many websites that claim to sell fentanyl are scams or sell counterfeit drugs that may contain dangerous substances.
- No drug has fueled the current spike in overdose deaths more than fentanyl.
- This causes feelings of well-being (euphoria) and relaxation and relieves pain.
Overdose prevention is a CDC priority that impacts families and communities. Drug overdose is a leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that fentanyl is odorless and tasteless, and there is no visible way of knowing if or how much fentanyl a pill contains. But those low-cost test strips can determine whether a drug contains traces of fentanyl. In 2022, the advocacy group Facing Fentanyl designated Aug. 21 “National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day,” to honor the people who have died from fentanyl and to increase public awareness of its toll.
