John B. writes:

On Sat, 03 Aug 2019 20:59:18 -0400, Radey Shouman
wrote:

Tom Kunich writes:

On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 6:03:16 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 5:29:18 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:
I know this is off topic but I don't find the answer anywhere else.

Today's news has Pres. Trump accusing the Chinese of continuing to
sell fentanyl to the United States -- "and many Americans continue to
die!"

But my research shows that fentanyl is a medical drug for the
alleviation of severe pain and as such I would assume to be a
controlled substance. How than, "many Americans continue to die!" ?

See
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/w...nyl-trump.html
Fentanyl and all its variants are now controlled substances in China
which, of course, does not stop illegal trade.

-- Jay Beattie.

Jay, Fentanyl was developed to be used as an injectable painkiller
when all else fails. The people in the final stages of cancer and the
like do not respond much to most of the pain killers on the market
including the strongest forms of Morphine.

I'm not sure what the idea was when it was developed, but fentanyl is
widely used for pain relief in transdermal patches. You can quite
easily absorb enough narcotic to light you right up from a patch smaller
than a postage stamp applied to your skin. Put a few on and you might
absorb a lethal dose.

It is useful, but I have to wonder if humanity would not have been
better off just liberalizing the use of heroin, which works much the
same way but is easier to titrate.

From what I read you are correct in the sense of, one might say, the
legal use of fentanyl, but the current U.S. claim seems to be that
illegal users of fentanyl are simply ordering it from (mainly) Chinese
Web Sites and getting it delivered to their door.

Fentanyl overdoses are a significant problem where I live. My
impression is that most users don't know whether they're getting heroin
or fentanyl of some mixture of the two. Dealers don't want to kill off
paying customers, but not being analytical chemists they're not that
good at dealing with doses in the micrograms, particularly after several
stages of distribution.

There are probably some users who order directly from China, but those
are very much in the minority.

I don't know whether the ultimate source of most fentanyl on US streets
is China; it does seem possible.

Again from my reading, something like 20,000 individuals are dying
from the illegal procurement and use of fentanyl and the U.S. wants
China to do something about it.

But you are correct, simply legalize the use of drugs and the price
goes down and illegal procurement immediately becomes a mote subject.

I was wondering aloud whether fentanyl would even have been developed if
legal heroin had continued to be easily available. The big reason to
promote new narcotics in the legal market is just that they are new, and
subject to patents and other legal means to monopoly. Makes great sense
for drug companies, not so much for either medical or recreational
users.

As an example, currently the "wholesale" price of methamphetamine
tablets on the Thai/Myanmar border is roughly 1/3- 1/2 the "wholesale"
price in Bangkok and in consequence the police daily capture pickup
truck loads of what the Thai's call "Ya Ba" (crazy medicine) on the
way to the big city. Multi million tablet intercepts are common these
days. The price varies but an "average" price is probably in the TB
200 - 300 per tab, about $6.60 -$10.00.

If Ya Ba was legalized tomorrow the retail price might become as low
as 30 baht ($1.00) each.
--
cheers,

John B.


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